Halo: Synergy
by BloodDragon058
Summary: The location of the UNSC infinity remains unknown even two weeks after Cortana's assault on earth. Stranded on Sanghelios with the rest of Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris, The Chief is determined to find a solution to the very problem he had caused. But things get interesting quickly when he is approached by an ex-storm covenant Shipmaster who had taken particular interest in him.
1. Enemy of my Enemy

( **Sangheili speech** )

(Normal speech)

* * *

Chapter 1

The enemy of my enemy

* * *

 _16 November, 2558_

 _Sanghelios_

 _19:00 hours_

The air was surprisingly more dry than it normally was off the more coastal regions of Sanghelios. Short and blissful breezes came into the canyon from outside, carrying the scent of the nearby ocean with the winds as they funneled through the rocks and to the base of the camp where it is subtlety enjoyed by the personnel residing in the sangheili camp belonging to that of the Swords of Sanghelios. Many under the human clan of the UNSC would likely love to jump at the opportunity to even just look at the planet from orbit or examine the various stone ruins and cities dotting the planet's landscape. The planet's sacred soil was saturated with the blood of countless generations of warriors and ocean filled with the wrecks of both ancient and recent ships, this planet only truly belonged to its people.

The natural beauty of the planet still remained to be given a worthy rival in Xuda's eyes. Although the rocky continent of Qivro was not his most ideal setting but instead preferring the rural farms of his home in the small state of Vuram on the continent of Kaepora where his family primarily served as consultants to those in the elder council. From what he had been notified upon his return to the planet, things in the keep had been in a state of disarray as their kaidon had died with an covenant general's energy blade to his hearts during the raids that had taken place at the battle in Sunaion.

Xuda slowly drew in another breath as the distant rush of a nearby waterfall could be heard clashing against the red and orange rocks down below leading out to the ocean where the crumbling towers of Sunaion struggled to stand. His Unggoy companion, Supap, sat down on the dusty red soil next to the plasma-scarred tree stump where he himself sat. Detaching the handguard off the hilt of his energy blade in order to clean the planet's persistent red soil off of it. The light grey hilt shined and reflected the sun's light beautifly once the layer of dirt had been removed, engraved with traditional runes as a prayer for good fortune during battle. The handguard's color remained the same, almost solid, dark grey as he re-attached it to the hilt. He had always seen the contrast in shades as a strangely pleasing sight. He looked down to see that Supap was messing around with his needler as if to mimic Xuda, quickly stopping to look back up at him and perked up at the elite zealot as if he were an excited pet and the master had just arrived home with a new toy for it to play with.

"Are you going to light it?" Supap asked enthusiastically. "I want to see the hot plasma burn!"

Xuda growled at his companion. Although the grunt was fairly intelligent, he couldn't fully comprehend the entire context of a sangheili's use of weapons for some odd reason. A weapon only being drawn if it were to be used in combat or if the wielder felt unsure if a vehicle contained friend or foe. Although he had broken that social rule upon a few times within the privacy of his own quarters aboard his ship or any other occasion he knew that he would be alone. Xuda was about to respond to his friend's request when the incoming comm from the older CAS carrier _Seeker of Truth_. Once the flagship of the former Supreme Commander-turned-arbiter but it had been gradually replaced as the newer and steadily upgraded _Shadow of Intent_ over the course of the Great Schism and Battle of Installation 00.

" _ **Shipmaster, Huragok servant-technicians have just reported that all ships in the fleet are now at ninety-two percent battle efficiency. We are ready to depart on your command but our contacts are requesting an update on our status."**_

Xuda stood up from the tree stump and placed the deactivated plasma-based blade onto his magnetic holster on the armor plating of his left thigh as Supap quickly jumped up and joined the zealot as they made their way to the arbiter's nearby camp.

" **Acknowledged, commander. Send in a phantom and remain in orbit until the arbiter's council comes to an consensus about the guardian threat that the spartans had came back with."**

" _ **Yes sir."**_ was the quick response before the line had gone silent once again.

The various red-roofed tents huddled closely to each other with few open spaces given on the arrangement of connected mesas. Members of the Swords of Sangheilos worked together in packing up of the camp. With the Covenant's defeat at Sunaion, there was little reason for almost the entirety of the arbiter's army to be stationed together in a single area. The localized military base would now serve as the home to many troops now calling the continent of Qivro their home in their task of defending the planet's surface as the Sword navy assembled together in the skies. Supplies being distributed around the planet in a potential attack by the 'prometheans' as the humans commonly called them.

Xuda paced himself as he walked across to the far side of the camp, passing by tents belonging to the stationed elites as Supap followed behind. Occasionally having to sprint in short bursts on all fours to keep up with the taller alien. They had come across few who were sitting around a fire with a metal tray suspended over it, one of which being one of the human demons he had recovered from the genesis installation after his ship had been pulled in by the Sunaion guardian. He never saw them in person before now as his commander was initially the one who welcomed them onboard and made sure that they had stayed close to their dropship in the time they had spent in the hangar of the _Seeker_. The human spartan was busy chatting with the others in the sangheili tongue but when it _did_ notice him, he had simply turned away and continued on his path.

The two paused at a open stretch at the cliffside which had been designated the outposts' supply point. Two of the human dropships sat dormant a few feet away from the edge as a pair of huragok tore excitedly at the plates of one which appeared to have a destroyed 'wing',supervised by their handler. It was previously still on fire when he had arrived to the planet's surface but since then it looks as if they had made little progress in restoring it to a minimally functional state. Xuda tensed as he could feel the grunt sitting uncomfortably close to his leg, tempted to shove him to the side a bit to give him a small amount of space but it would ultimately be useless as the childish unggoy would likely attach it's stone-like claws around his waist in a tight hug until he threatened him with his energy sword. The familiar hum of multiple phantom and lich dropships echoed throughout the mesa, the sound often being soothing as he had once caught another sangheli under his command drifting to sleep to the effect during his earlier days as a major in the original covenant empire and a second time as a Shipmaster for the _Seeker of Truth_ during Jul 'Mdama's campaign on Requiem.

Xuda's blood boiled at the thought of that imbecile. Meddling with the technology of their gods and going as far to permitting the destruction of the home of the Didact himself was an unforgivable heresy, a humiliating death at one of the human demons was more than justified. He sighed. But now either he liked it or not, the gods' technology has now been corrupted by the touch of the rouge human construct and the destruction of such priceless instruments was now inevitable. He wanted to openly place blame onto the demon with them responsible for this outcome but he suppressed his ideals around the arbiter as further conflict in their current position would do nothing to aid the fight against their new enemy.

His train of rather negative thoughts was thankfully halted by the approach of a type-52 troop carrier. Unlike others in the arbiter's arsenal, this one's hull plating bared a near-reflective green color. A reminder of the dropship's operation during the Great Schism on the Ark on behalf of the early days of the Swords of Sanghelios as it is known in the modern day. The phantom pulled to the ledge where he and Supap patiently waited as the bay door opened, revealing the dimly lit interior and a single elite inside. The accompanying elite bowed his head down in respect as a closed fist came to his chest in a acknowledging salute as the taller elite walked past,completely disregarding the unggoy.

" **At ease commander."**

The commander briefly nodded and stood in front of him, revealing a data pad he had kept hidden behind his back and began swiping away at the text. Handing it over to the shipmaster within a few seconds.

" **I hope you would reconsider this, the Arbiter only just granted us a handful of support vessels and no capital ships, shipmaster."**

Xuda looked at the complete list of every ship that had been granted to him by the arbiter for their journey. Their fleet count coming to a total of eleven ships. Consisting of a single DSC-class agricultural ship, three ket-pattern CCS-class Battlecruisers, continued command over the kerel-pattern _Seeker of Truth_ , two DAS-class "storm cutters", three CRS light cruisers, and a DDS-class carrier. Personally he would have liked a bit more in terms of firepower but he would have to make way with what the arbiter had been able to spare for him, what he had been provided would be more than enough of a fleet if they were to join with the others and the ships were used with a capable fleetmaster. However, the entire operation now left him as a DeFacto Fleetmaster until their task was complete. What concerned him was that the arbiter had not yet appointed his new fleet a certain task but they were almost ready for departure.

" **What about the brutes?"** Xuda asked, handing the smaller sangheili the circular datapad back.

" **They had so far denied details but we are currently estimating for there to be about fifteen ships under their chieftain's command."**

Xuda had expected this outcome. He would have to see if he could pry it out of the short-tempered jiralhanae when he spoke to him later when he was given the uninterrupted privacy of his own quarters, away from the eyes and ears of his crew for the time being.

" **But the humans have shared the bare minimum information they had been permitted by their superiors. Including ship classifications and the identity of their chosen fleetmaster but no word on their numbers or combat capability."** The commander quickly continued. The human separatists were very insistent on the privacy of their deployed fleet, which was understandable given the Swords' strong alliance and support with the UNSC. He couldn't ignore his friend's word of caution as he was generally going out of his way to find a resolve to this new threat with the enemies of his people, if his plan was prematurely discovered by the arbiter himself than he would likely face the charge of treason. A trial he would most likely not come back from.

What he was hoping on was the arbiter's encouragement of peace-talks with the minority of brute tribes that had actually seemed interested in a cooperative alliance and sharing of resources with both the Swords of Sanghelios and the UNSC. IF he could get the chance to drill the idea into Chief Paktus' sometimes thick and arrogant skull than he could at least defend himself with some kind of argument. The sangheili shipmaster looked down at his unggoy companion who was sitting on the floor playing around with the glowing crystalline shards, even accidentally prodding himself with one but failing to notice immediately due to the Unggoy species' naturally tough rock-like scales that make up the bulk of their forearms. The grunt looked back up at him once he had realized that he was being watched.

The old separatist phantom stalled, momentarily confusing Supap as the bay doors opened to reveal the vast interior of the _Seeker's_ primary hangar. The trio walked out onto the purple platform resting outside the door, catching the sight of the two DAS-class storm cutters fitted as tightly together as possible to avoid collision and still able to fit a suitable amount of dropships, strike craft and other weaponry. Following the sight to the starboard side, Xuda had spotted a small number of type-47 scarab platforms being directed into designated locations to the side of the hangar where they would remain out of the way until they were called upon. The scents of different foods being prepared to feed the soldiers was currently faint as but as they would get closer it would undoubtedly get increasingly overwhelming. Xuda pressed on to the gravity lift at the end of the suspended walkway, the elite commander and Supap following closely as he made his way throughout the maze of levitated spirit and phantom dropships.

Like he had expected, the smell of the food and chatter of the elites had only gotten stronger as they descended. Very little unggoy and kig-yar were present, leaving the possibility that each species was being fed at a time. Traffic of different infantry vehicles moved swiftly across the hangar floor, being directed by a single sangheili holding an inactive datapad standing in the center of it all. The elite wore a bulky outrider-class battle harness bearing the standard red coloring as most sword infantrymen, smaller grey sections of the armor and the large white sigil painted onto on his chest signifying his rank as a major. The elite quickly stopped what he was doing and bowed into a salute upon his shipmaster's approach.

" **Shipmaster 'Trakamai! We are still preparing for the depart-"**

The elite quickly cut off from the conversation and turned around to howl curses at the Unggoy driver of a Type-48 light gun carriage who was dangerously close to ramming into another who was hauling a plasma turret. Now that he had gotten a moment to look around, the shipmaster had quickly realized that most of their available equipment was a bit outdated in terms of design. A good number of their wraiths were that of the type-26 variety, having been left over from when he had abandoned Jul 'Mdama, but the arbiter had been able to spare a bit of type-58 carriages. Even a few of the anti-air model to complete his total inventory to the best of ability. Although many of his crew found respect in serving under the arbiter's command, addressing an individual by their covenant surname and speaking primarily in sangheili were still very common occurrences and a very difficult habit to drop.

Supap placed his needler onto the leather strap attached to a small metal plate of armor on his right calf. Unlike most other unggoy he had been given a choosing of different armors that best-friend Xuda had been able to provide, even while under pressure from Jul 'Mdama after being told to stop 'wasting resources' on the unggoy. Their fights used to be frequent, sometimes about how many troops went where, what needed protecting, how the big human ship over the metal planet should be destroyed. The metal planet falling into the nearby sun had really upset his friend, going far enough as to gather everyone possible and threatening to "let them die with Requiem" if they did not agree with his or the Arbiter's ideas. But that was all in the past as the entire ship now sang happily with words "The covenant is dead!" coming in what were presumably war songs.

Xuda was still talking with the other sangheili in the red armor who seemed a bit embarrassed and pulled out a datapad, likely for having to cut off from the conversation to yell at another unggoy. He never really understood their language, only understanding most formal titles and bridge commands such as "shipmaster", "commander" or even the one time he had heard "leave nothing for the humans to come back to". Supap slowly walked away, approaching the collection of open food stalls where lines of sangheili were collecting their rations of the strange brown meat that they often ate and even what looked to be cooked roots off of some kind of plant. He walked up to one of the elites who had been distributing food to the others, the elite glared at him and the others in line growled in annoyance. He was shoved onto the ground by the one next in the line.

"You will get your turn Unggoy." the elite growled, being handed his ration on a small metal plate.

Supap looked up to the towering sangheili behind the table and pointed over to where Xuda was still talking to the red and grey-armored elite with the white mark on his chest.

Very few elites around him bothered to follow the direction of where his stone-like claw was pointing but elite behind the table perked up at the sight of his shipmaster and nodded at the grunt as if to thank him for the heads-up, his jaws tightening together at the center of his mouth and heading to a nearby table where freshly-cooked meals sat to be handed out to the crew. He had personally found it odd that the entire sangheili race were made up of two different subspecies, much of their physiology being different. The more inpatient elites quietly growled to themselves in disappointment as the elite from behind the table came back with the small metal tray but proceeded to leave in Xuda's direction but Supap quickly got up from the spot where he had been pushed onto the floor and scurried up to the elite, cutting him off. The elite looked back at him both confused and greatly irritated.

"Don't worry. I will take it to him, you can go back to the others." Supap assured him.

The elite paused, as if he was weighing out the options although quickly deciding to hand over the tray to him. Supap enthusiastically marched up to his friend who was now leaving the red-armored one, handing over the datapad that the elite originally held. Xuda had quickly noticed his disappearance and scanned the scene, catching sight of the grunt among the small setup of tents. Part of him seemed flattered that his unggoy friend had gone through the effort in getting a meal but he had kept his expression in a neutral tone and respectfully denying the grunt's offer. He can wait until his current business regarding the human separatists' and brute ships had been taken care of, letting the content unggoy feast upon the luxury of sangheili cuisine opposed to the standard "food nipple" rations that they were normally fed as they began their ways down the brightly lit halls leading out of the _Seeker's_ primary hangar.

Despite the large movement of troops and supplies, the halls were mostly empty as the placement of the primary armories were in a nearby location of the main lift and hangar of the Carrier to allow easy access and transportation to the ground directly or distribution by the dropships. Very few passed by and the sangheili routinely acknowledged their serperiors with a salute, members of other races instead just moved out of their way and avoided eye contact. Supap stopped when he had realized Xuda's hand hit gently onto his chest, too preoccupied with the mostly-eaten food in the tray he had been eating out of he had failed to realize that they were close to the bridge and not far away from Xuda's own quarters. The shipmaster simply looked back at him and nodded down the hallway from the direction they had come from with a rather small and animalistic hiss, his way of saying 'I'll call you back if I need you later'.

Upon his command, Supap enthusiastically ran off to the hangar to the best of his ability while holding onto the tray still containing the rest of the sangheili food. The elites, now alone, watched as the grunt scurried off before continuing on their path to the shipmaster's quarters as the bridge would most likely be occupied with crew very eager to depart and join the crusade against their new enemy. Too exposed to speak with their contacts.

On his approach the large purple doors slid open. The two passing by a spike that had been forcefully driven into the ground on the right of the door inside the larger space, adorned with the bloody helmets and UNSC identification tags belonging to the handful of human demons of the past that had unfortunately met their end at the tip of his blade. The commander could once remember how during the covenant empire's reign the trophies once brought him a great sense of pride when he had commanded the CCS Battlecruiser _Undying Faith_ before he was given control of the _Seeker of Truth_ , but ever since the events of the Great Betrayal and now the destruction of Requiem the totem only brought him the feeling of shame brought on by misled teaching.

' _Most ironic.'_ The commander thought, mandibles breaking off from the center of his jaw and forming into a faint smirk as he locked the door and followed behind his shipmaster. Quickly returning to a neutral expression in preparation for the discussion ahead.

The room itself was seemingly large. The majority of the room was much more calmly lit, trading in the bright purples of the hallways for the more mild and darker shades shades found within a majority of other sections on the ship, although they were often being restricted to commanding officers for a quiet place to retreat to and work after dealing with the more energetic and ambitious of the others for extended amounts of time. The room was more like that of a half-sphere, similar to the shape of the bridge itself but much smaller. Personal equipment such as those of a bed and personal terminal accompanied by other luxuries not given to most other sangheili. shelves lined against the curved walls containing mostly tomes of many stories and traditions passed down by the generations, a familiar sight to the commander as many other officers he worked under liked to keep such sources of guidance, knowledge and entertainment close to themselves away from home while on duty as well. Prompting him to wonder if the Humans gave their own shipmasters their own refuge in the ships they commanded.

In the center of the room there sat a dormant holotable, roughly three fourths the dimensions of a type-32 ghost as the humans often referred to them. Holotables here normally unfavorable with sangheili shipmasters but they had proven very efficient in multi-vessel communications, and with the little privacy offered by the bridge given the sensitivity of the conversation that was about to transpire they had little choice anyway. Xuda placed a hand on the green panel mounted onto the side of the table and it glew to life, projecting the planet of sanghelios and all of the Arbiter's ships in orbit. Including on his collecting fleet. Just as they were issued, support ships close by gathered in a rather unorganized fleet position as they approached from all directions of the planet. The Swords' navy around Sanghelios currently being split into five separate fleets. Two of which he quickly knew were the Arbiter's own Fleet of Retribution -which had appeared to decrease in the number of ships- marked by the presence of the _Shadow of Intent_ and his own much smaller fleet. Surely the arbiter intended for the dismissed ships to stay and protect the planet with an assigned homefleet in the case of a guardian attack. He quickly got to work with the panel mounted onto the table and transmitted to his other ships, sending the command to form a defensive cluster around the agricultural and capital ships.

Almost suddenly the other ships began to fall in formation as he wished. Satisfied, he had cut off the communications to the fleet from his room. They were still able to reach him at the bridge where it was much more appropriate, however. Xuda looked over to his loyal commander who quickly walked over to him to provide access to their contacts' long-range communications.

" **I trust that their long-range communications array is not one of the rouge construct's traps."** He asked. The commander looked at him and nodded as he arranged the text on his circular datapad.

" **The humans' report that their AIs has been disconnected and isolated from their systems and 'kill switches' are being delivered through all of our ships routinely everyday. Any AI capable enough to be infected by the fabled 'logic plague' would most likely be terminated upon contact with the code."** he assured him.

" **Are you sure?"**

" **With all the trust I can currently give these humans. I have seen the results firsthand when they used the code recently to decommission one of their older and more….'rampant' AIs on one of their ships."**

Xuda looked at him with confused expression, tilting his head in curiosity. Humans destroyed the AIs on their ships once they are considered 'too old' to continue their function? It may explain why some would switch sides in the journey to obtain eternal life after fearing an end to their own. But yet they choose to abuse this newfound power, to enslave their former allies and corrupt the holy relics of their gods. He knew how both Humans and their AIs tended to bond with their partners in varying degrees for maximum efficiency during primarily naval conflicts. most common example among his people being the story of humanity's champion willingly risking his own life and the successful destruction of the flood by piloting a banshee into the depths of the infested city of high charity to retrieve his AI that he had bonded with during the later events of what they called the 'Human-Covenant War' and into the Great Betrayal. The story's knowledge being shared to their kind by the kaidon-Arbiter Thel 'Vadam himself and verified by Shipmaster Ratas 'Vadum.

He was about to query his commander on the matter when they had been interrupted by a transmission originating from his table.

"' _Shipmaster' 'Trakamai?"_ a voice spoke from the console.

Xuda looked back at the console and saw the hologram of a human female staring back at him, the commander had almost jumped at the sudden transmission. She seemed confused and rather disappointed. Although he could be wrong, Understanding human expressions and how it correlated with their emotions was never really his expertise as he had only killed them on sight before his abandonment.

"Are you the human fleetmaster?" Xuda asked. The commander stood further from the table behind his superior, mostly managing the ship's supplies based off the information each of his captains gave him but listened in on the conversation. The human was not alone but he could see the faint silhouettes of a large groups of others in the background, perhaps their end of the transmission was being held in a more public setting than that of his location.

"Rear Admiral Yanukovich of the New Colonial Alliance. I just wasn't expecting a Hesdurain zealot in the Swords of Sanghelios."

At least he now knew the human separatists' given fleet master a bit more directly. A small part of him was offended in their prejudiced assumption of his origin. Truth was that he only went to Hesduros after the Great Betrayal, taking on the uniform of the Hesdurian zealot-class harness when he had found his ship under the service of Jul 'Mdama.

"It does not matter how I came to be in service of the Arbiter." He growled. "Where is the brute chieftain?"

He could sense that the human was not any happier than him about the temporary alliance between the three of them than he or likely even Paktus would be about this. It was a forced upon them by the threat of extinction by a common and superior foe, much like the smaller conflicts with the flood during the war with the humans and Great Betrayal.

" _Paktus should be on his ship, as to exactly where I have no idea. The bridge seems the most likely as I had received a number of empty threats by his right hand_

 _-Tricius- that he would kill my technicians for being on his ships, helping feed the AI kill-code through their systems."_

Xuda could tell that his commander had the same feeling he did, irritated at a brute's lousy incopitance to even show up for a meeting after he had requested it. So far the human female showed more responsibility than the war chieftain. Why the hierarchy of the covenant ever thought replacing the capable race of the sangheili for one so disorganized such as the Jiralhanae was beyond him. The Unggoy may have well been the ones to replace them and possibly prove themselves as much better commanders than the brutes seemed to have been. In his experience the Jiralhanae had always relied on numbers and their raw power rather than take advantage of any weakness or opportunity inside naval combat and a few instances on the battlefield. Often concerning themselves more with their stomachs rather than any given task or responsibilities.

" _I will see if I am able to contact him from here but no guarantees. On the brighter side of things however, right now we have found a suitable planet to hide on in what we humans like to call: The "Scutum-Centaurus Arm" of this wonderful galaxy."_

Xuda understood that she had said that last part with the infamous use of sarcasm that humans were known for producing on occasion, but to either use it as a coping tactic for what is happening or to mock his intelligence was unknown to him. Nevertheless a shared hologram on the table displayed a overlooking view of the galaxy, quickly highlighting a one of the few spiraling 'arms' and zooming in. Focusing on a single planet in what looked to be within the habitable range of a double-star system, accompanied by five separate natural satellites and a ring system similar to which had been observed in the humans' home system and Te . Xuda briefly looked to his commander and gestured to the hologram being displayed with a tilt of his head before looking back at the hologram. The commander had nodded and immediately got to work extracting what data was being given to them by the human fleetmaster using the console on the side of the table.

From what he could he could already observe based of the footage, the planet had three distinctive continents on the surface. It's landmass appearing to be sixty percent of the total exposed space with the oceans only being forty percent upon estimation. The terrain seemed have a healthy variety as small polar ice caps, large deserts, mass amounts of foliage, and a handful of mountains were all visible from space.

" _You can actually thank Paktus and his men for finding this place. He dragged us here when he found it."_

"Any forerunner constructs on the surface?"

" _I sent a science team moments ago reinforced by a handful of my own and Paktus' men to provide security and they only recently landed. Nothing too major but there's a brief report of a large stone temple, similar to which the UNSC found on Installation 05."_

Xuda had to quietly admit that the human we was currently conversing with had a sense of forethought. Although brutes were quite useful in roles of security they could never be trusted completely alone and had to be supervised by an outside party.

"I suggest caution to the both of you. We still have not been given the order to depart and there are many preparations my fleet has to take, antagonizing the enemy into a full-scale attack prematurely is bound to bring setbacks and wounded."

" _Exactly what else is left for you to do?"_ she asked. Folding her arms in front of her chest and continuing to stand in an upright position, her body shifting

"I intend on bringing the one responsible for this entire crisis with us." Xuda growled. Not so much annoyed with the fleetmaster herself, but instead at the human demon in question for creating such a dilemma. Thankfully she seemed to understand the direction of his anger. At least he thinks she did, still not entirely sure on human emotions or expressions. "The demon's connection with the enemy could provide insight to their motives."

The Rear Admiral seemed to be momentarily confused, the short ridges of hair above her eyes coming closely together as if she was trying to think, moving her face to the side. To assume what he considered to be quietly echoing his words to herself until she looked back up him in what was similar to a state of surprise and anger.

" _The 'Demon'?!"_ she almost hissed at him. _"The Master Chief has obligation to kill us all except you because of your arbiter's allegiance with the UNSC!"_

Xuda could still see the faint outlines of the humans in the background, all of which appeared to now be facing the duo. He was uncertain on what the expressions meant. Some showed possible features of excitement mixed in what he commonly recognized as human fear from his days in the covenant. Which seemed fitting as not only had the demon saved their race -a respectable feat which they would undoubtedly praise him for- but was also now an enemy after they had come into the service under the clan which now publicly opposed the UNSC.

"I am confident that the demon will make an exception in the pursuit of a much greater threat… Aside from that I can ensure you that the investment in having the demon present will prove worthwhile."

Alina took one of her arms from the fold and rubbed her forehead out of annoyance. Few sangheili she had interacted with had been this insistent such as the shipmaster she was currently talking with. Even if some had proven themselves right in the past, the thought of risking everything on a single emotionless drone of the UNSC greatly bothered her. In also brought in a concern for their slowly dwindling food supplies. They had only managed to scrape together enough to last their crew four months with the current troop and staff count and for all she was concerned, the chief would be a constant danger and another mouth to feed on this mission. Not to mention the possible risk of sabotage.

But the zealot, now looking at her patiently on the screen, had a point. His known UNSC service record and stories proved him to be quite the formidable opponent on the battlefield, a good chunk of the insurrectionists she had met still praised him for his success over the original covenant empire in the war. Having one of his skill would prove quite valuable although she was sure that the UNSC would be less than pleased about their favorite spartan being involved in the whole affair. If she kept him mostly isolated in his own little spot with only speaking to a few she knew would keep their mouth shut involving anything other than their current war, then he shouldn't be much of an issue in terms of information.

" _Fine."_ she sighed defeatedly. She can feel the concerning stare of a few onboard the bridge, as if they were surprised at her act of agreeing on the situation. _"I expect an eye for an eye, however. If this all goes south because of you, expect a personal target painted on your back and a high reward for your head."_

It seemed that the brute Tricius was already beginning to rub off onto the human. But what he didn't understand was the phrase the human had just bound him to: "an eye for an eye."

" _I'll try to reach Paktus and let him know that he missed the meeting he wanted but at you're informed on how our side of things are doing. I suggest you to hurry as the both of us don't know until the Created realize we're here."_

Xuda nodded as the human signed off. The commander approached him with his datapad out, stopping a half a meter in front of him.

" **I will have to take this information for further processing."**

" **Then do so. We have no time to waste."**

The commander bowed his head in a nod before heading to the door, stopped by the zealots arm suddenly blocking him across the chest. Stepping back a pace he looked up to his commanding officer as he lowered his arm back down to his side.

" **First thing upon sunrise I want you to convince the demon into joining us onto the ship. May it be by word or force."**

He could see that his commander as a but unsure about the idea about provoking the demon of all things onto the ship.

" **And of the other human demons?"** he asked.

" **Only if they wish to, but it is preferable that it comes alone."**

" **As you wish, fleetmaster."** his fist came to his chest and he bowed his head down in a sangheili salute.

Xuda gestured to the door, allowing him to leave him be as he turned back to the console.


	2. An interesting offer

Chapter 2

An interesting offer

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 _17 November, 2558_

 _State of Nuusra, Sanghelios_

 _09:00 hours_

* * *

The current situation was a very unwelcome change of pace. They had been stuck on the planet for about two weeks while cortana was likely causing more destruction throughout the inner and outer colonies as they sat idly by on the planet. As far as he knew, the status of the _Infinity_ was still unknown until and only shy attempts at secure communication had been conducted with no response. From what he had seen with ships moving above them into orbit, the Arbiter's council of Elders and Commander Palmer had likely come to an agreement on a course of action. Hopefully leaving a strong enough defense force as they leave and bring the fight to Cortana and the 'created' as they had begun to call themselves.

John stopped his rapid pacing from back and forth, an awful habit he had quickly picked up since they had arrived onto the planet after both spartan fireteams had been brought here by a sangheili CAS assault carrier. Mostly due to the lack of any real tasks assigned to him and the rest of Blue Team. Linda and Fred had found ways to keep themselves fairly busy by volunteering as sentries among a majority of the jackals in the camp and he had heard very little from Kelly over the last four days. Osiris had to be completely avoiding him as he had only seen spartan Buck about twice and he was sure that the rest of Blue Team had seen very little of them since leaving the carrier as well. Halsey had been the only one to approach him openly since, asking out of concern as she had likely been worried about his opinion on the current problem.

He needed something to help distract himself from the thought, he didn't like thinking about it. the subject of Cortana only brought him pain followed by hints of rage.

He quickly scanned the large tent he was currently alone in, a flap of red fabric tied to one of the posts isolated and closed it off from the rest of the camp that had been busy for the last few days only exposed side faced out to the canyon and rested only a inch or so away from the rocky cliff face and out into the canyon, the sun had been rather blinding in the mornings but his visor was normally quick to adjust to the new amount of light. Although the view had also came the breezes from the ocean that brought in new waves of red soil that had been sitting loosely in the environment into his direction. Over the period of time he had been here, it was an essential lesson to learn that cleaning armor and weapons would inevitably become pointless as a new layer could completely overtake the surface overnight on worse nights. While at the moment his armor was mostly clean as the winds had been more calm than it was for the last two days, it had only really collected from the knees down as he often kicked up more soil no matter how softly he walked to keep it from stirring up into the air.

Small crates lined up against the stiff walls as if to both provide small storage and keep the red fabric cover from flying away in the breezes as a fairly large but portable holotable that was currently inactive sat almost in the center of the moderately-sized shelter. John approached one of the the small metal crates out of sheer desperation to find something else to occupy his mind with, kneeling down on his left leg and carefully lifting the metallic lid by it's small handle as it quietly screeched. He turned the lid over to the bottom and traced his thumb along the edge. The square lid was made up of a thin sheet of metal -possibly rusting steel or iron- that held up well under a fair amount pressure, even from him. The edges of the box had a more 'homemade' feel to it rather than a mass produced object would have as the edges were fairly sharp and the faces were poorly welded together.

Inside he lifted the felt sheet inside and looked at the small pile of Type-1 energy blade hilts. There had to be at least twenty of the five-pound hilts stacked neatly in the small container. One that had quickly grabbed his attention. Picking the hilt up slowly, he looked at the reflective and neatly manufactured surface. The plates on the sword hilt had seemed to be two-toned as it shifted to light orange to the standard silver tone as he tilted the object from side to side, there wasn't another like it in the crate. John placed the sword into the grip of his right hand, his techsuit instantly getting to work by syncing with the weapon's data to his armor and the remaining battery percentage of the plasma blade. Coming in at a not very surprising twenty percent.

' _These are all the blades that are either dead or critically low.'_ he thought. He focused on a number of similarly sized crates lined up against the tent's wall. _'Or at least possibly some of them.'_

He was taken by surprise with movement on his tracker very close to his position, only realizing someone had been approaching when the dot had disappeared. He calmly closed his eyes as he listened to the sound of heavy and metallic footsteps rhythmically approaching the entrance to the tent, quickly igniting the blade and turning around on his feet as soon as he heard the sound of the leather strap closing the tent had been untethered. His blade stood in a defensive stance as he calmly opened his eyes and glanced at the blade as he waited for whoever it was to show themselves or make the first move. The blade of the sword was rather exotic, compared to other ones that had come briefly into his possession. The blade started as a firm orange color around the edges but as the plasma burned further to the blades it shifted to a almost piercing light blue at the end of the blade's dual tip in a near gradient manner.

His attention quickly snapped back at the red dot on his tracker, watching as the the enemy in front of him backed off a bit, as if they were uncertain if they wanted to continue. Soon after he heard the sound of another blade ignite, although sounding 'heavier' and more pronounced than a standard blade. The red dot hastily approached the fabric that served as a makeshift door, four golden-armored fingers lifted the thick fabric making up the entrance to the tent up high. Allowing him to recognize both the orange, pulsating blade and the identity of the one wielding it.

John relaxed from his defensive stance and lowered his sword, deactivating his blade and letting his arms rest at his side as the Arbiter did the same with his sword, placing it securely on a holster attached with fine leather on his right leg. The arbiter was moderately covered head to toe in the red dust just about like everyone else in the camp, dulling the color of his normally bright and shining armor. As the sangheili walked he dragged a somewhat large and awfully dirty tan cape that had golden fine-stitched patterns running along the edges of the partially torn cape. It's colors having been long since faded after what would take years of use to achieve, not completely impossible as he had already missed out of a lot during his days suspended in cryo aboard the remains of the _Forward Unto Dawn_.

His eyes had been protected by the unforgiving soil of the planet with small clear lenses filling the gap in his helmet, which he could only assume that they provided the arbiter with his own HUD. It was unnoticeable at first glance and you had to look very hard to spot the seams where they poked out of the helmet, refracting the sunlight like glass when hitting them at the right angle.

However the fabric into the tent now swayed loosely in the breeze provided by the canyon. More soil being blown in from the camp already enthusiastically intruding the decently large space.

"I did not expect you to be here spartan." The arbiter started. Vocal tone and head perked in in genuine surprise and more predominantly, curiosity. "Your commander had taken a hunting party into the canyon after the UNSC's Dr. Halsey thought you had retreated to the river over this whole ordeal."

The arbiter's words had been met with silence from the spartan as the elite situated himself at the table with his armored back turned to the former demon in the favor of the holotable in the center of the room. An act of trust he had been given from since the moment they had encountered each other in the rainforests of East Africa. And one he had returned grudgingly. The Kaidon moved his head to the side to the spartan, looking at the green-armored figure who was still holding the two-toned hilt out of the corner of his eye. "However, It is reassuring to find you still within the parameters of the camp and not learning that you had fled to solve your problems with the construct alone."

John couldn't help but become genuinely curious and a bit upset in the arbiter's words. Did everyone really see him as _that_ emotionally fragile about this entire problem? True that he once considered Cortana a close friend, but he had to move on. As much as it really did hurt him, this was a solution that he no choice but to be a part of. He had caused the problem and he was going to fix.

The plates of his armor lightly scraping together with the movement, quickly gesturing to the spot of the table across from him with a reptilian hiss bearing a rather authoritative tone. John slowly turned around to drop the hilt of the deactivated blade back into the box but he was stopped when he saw the arbiter raise his arm out to him and four-fingered palm open in his direction.

"Keep it. You have chosen your blade, it is now yours to carry into combat."

He was hesitant but John kept the blade like the Arbiter wanted, letting the magnetic holster on his left thigh secure it tightly to his armor. As the one on his right held his M6H magnum while the Magnetic holsters provided on top of the incorporated thrusterpack held his incredibly prefered MA5D assault rifle. Did the elites normally just give out weapons like this? Or could have the blade belonged to an elite at some point? Perhaps as either a trophy from one of his past kills or the more likely chance that it was just simply a gift. It still confused him however.

He could feel the Arbiter's awareness of him as he moved to the opposite end of the holotable, carefully avoiding his cape as it sat on the dirt floor to not upset the sangheili.

"Cortana and the created are the result of a mistake I intend to fix." John replied dryly, drowning out the sorrowful undertone with what he could understand as cynicism or determination. The arbiter looked up from the now activated console to interpret the featureless look he had received from the spartan's helmet. Although he lacked the ability to see the spartan's face, he had learned enough about humans' body language and the tone of voice to understand their emotions and predict their behavior. He could tell the spartan was uncomfortable in addressing the situation to him by the overall look of wanting to walk away.

Chief was met with a indistinguishable gaze from the elite in front of him, tilting his head to the side to get a better look at the spartan II as if he couldn't exactly see strait correctly due to the small blindspot his armor created in between his eyes.

"Exactly what had caused your construct to turn on you?" He asked curiously.

"I'm not sure. The last I had seen Cortana before she awakened the guardians was when she had gone down with a promethean ship in an effort to save me from the initial explosion."

The arbiter's curiosity peaked at the mention of a promethean ship. Turning from the spartan who maintained a stoic presence, gazing down at the table and examining the hologram. The arrangement of ships had changed, defense fleets had fallen into line around the planet while fleetmasters 'Trakam and 'Vadum had gotten their ships in formation and ready for deployment.

"Arbiter."

Thel's eyes shifted to the roughly two meter tall spartan who was currently digging out a small copper-coated chip out of the back of his helmet, inspecting it closely as it crisply reflected the sun's light onto the maroon roof. He knew what the object was, it was a UNSC identification card. Primarily used to highlight allys and locate enemies.

"You do have access to our systems, do you not?" Thel asked him.

"I had been...preoccupied." was the spartans response. Of course he already knew what was going on. The spartan's unstable emotional state likely interfered with basic activities over the course of two weeks. However he had been told by the other spartans of Blue Team that this was semi-unusual behaviour from him, resorting to do any job that was handed down to him just to keep himself from thinking. Despite the reason he neglected to ask one of his men for access to the battlenet, the arbiter appreciated the human's honesty. Even if it was vague and up to interpretation.

The arbiter moved his cape out from behind him and to the side as he faced a smaller console that rested against the side of the tent, aligned with the small crates carrying the dead energy blades. John stood still as the sangheili swiped across the holographic containing incomprehensible runes made up of mostly triangles, until the sangheili kaidon looked back at him and outstretched an arm in his direction with four-fingered palm open. Obediently dropping the small, metallic SPARTAN IFF into the arbiter's two stood quietly as the computer had gone to work, running smoothly as if this wasn't its first time accessing UNSC technology and had been doing so for a while. John moved to the sangheili's side as the computer softly ejected the card into the arbiter's leathery palm once it had finished.

The arbiter had again turned in his direction but kept his focus on the card as he held it up, inspecting his work quickly before handing it over to the spartan who immediately plugged it back into the helmet. The visor and integrated heads-up display took a moment, going black momentarily to restart and cycle through the new data. The crack that had been inflicted on the right half of his visor by Spartan Locke did not help as the process forced him to stare at a malfunctioning stream of rainbows produced by the damaged screen. Although thankfully it had only been for a second or two as the display had quickly settled and all seemed to go back to normal for the exception of the crack where the rainbow effect still remained by the seams of the rather distracting crack. Efficiently leaving him unable to see out of one-third of his helmet.

Ignoring it, John looked down to the bottom left corner of his hud and saw that the previously red dots that had been surrounding him had turned to friendly yellows. The entire time the arbiter had been looking at him quizzically with his head facing more to his right, as if he were trying to ask him 'did it work?'. The chief nodded to the sangheili in front of him, prompting him to return a much shorter nod of his own and once again moved his cape gently out his way in order to effectively retrieve a sangheili datapad.

"Come with me spartan."

John nodded to the elite and followed the arbiter as he was instructed, winding their way around the slowly dwindling but still significantly packed camp. Conveniently, many who came by backed away to allow them to pass and came to a salute but he understood that they had only done so because he was with their leader. Many elites stopped what they had been doing temporarily just to watch a moment as the unlikely duo walked by side-by-side, a pair of sangheili even stepping forward a bit from their post to get a better look at him specifically. Despite the large and honestly uncomfortable amount of attention he was currently receiving, he refused to let his discomfort be shown to those around him. Normally he wouldn't let it get to him but he was now unconditionally part of the solution to a devastating problem that he had directly caused. He could see out of the little of the right side of his visor he had left, that the arbiter had been looking at him. As if he was more curious than concerned about what was currently going on in his head.

He was about to respond when the arbiter had suddenly turned around a sandstone pillar on the side of their previous path. Failing to notice immediately and only realizing that he had changed direction once he glanced at his motion tracker. He quietly swore to himself and caught up with the golden sangheili at the base of a stone staircase, he took a second to look at the new surroundings before slowly ascending his way up the stairs. Careful as he took each step as the stone staircase was considerably steep at a thirty-two degree angle and lacked a heavily recommended guardrail.

The structure lied in between a narrow segment of the large series of canyons, looking to be a stone carved city into the sides of the canyon with metal bridges scattered about to connect the sides. The location was fairly small and claustrophobic with a dense population. Many of the sangheili in the area were wearing the swords' uniform bearing its distinctive crimson and cream colors but a small amount of individuals could be spotted wearing what could be casual clothing. The diversity was also noticeable; although members of the other races were minimal, they could be easily identified. Jackal snipers of all subspecies were present, perched on high ledges with minimal exposure and grunts helped tow smaller supplies throughout the settlement.

He was met with a distracting glare in his right eye once he had reached the top of the first set of stairs, the second floor of the stone city only sat three meters above the level of the camp below. He looked for the source of the glare in his visor and spotted Linda looking down at him from the top level around twelve meters above them, using Nornfang's scope to reflect sunlight into his face and get his attention. Putting the weapon at a rested position in her arms once he swipes a smile across his visor in her direction. He continued to follow the arbiter through the crowded stone maze as he opened up his comms, getting signal from Linda almost immediately.

"Commander Palmer was looking for you. She took Fred, Kelly, and Locke into the canyons during a hunting party with one of the arbiter's officers thinking they would find you down there."

"I know. The arbiter told me down at the camp."

"Halsey was worried, she kept arguing with Commander Palmer to go find you."

John quickly moved his head to check in on his right, checking in on his blind spot to make sure he wasn't about to bump into something that would make him fall onto down the stairs. At nine meters from the next large flat surface he could try locking up his armor to avoid any major damage to his body but he would still have to expect even more scars into his skin.

"We were starting to get worried too."

John stood still for a moment. Had he really caused Halsey and Blue Team to become paranoid over his welfare because of his recent behavior? He shook his head and pushed it aside, slowly making his way up the barely maintained set of stone stairs, worn down at points due to long years of use.

Linda watched him from above at her post as her assigned Ibie'shan kig-yar sentry partner was taking a break, sitting down close to her feet almost cross-legged going to town with some food as his type-50 beam rifle was close to falling off the edge. She found it particularly odd how frequent he was looking around him and how he was sticking as close to the wall as possible, moving slowly paces behind the arbiter. Something had to be wrong with him

Her suspicions had proven to be correct when John and the arbiter had made it to the top minutes later. His damaged visor had turned to an opaque black along the fractures. Possibility causing the entire set of Mjolnir Armor to lose its EVA capability if the inflicted damage wasn't bad enough. John was currently in a state of surprise at what sat at the top of the city, almost instantly becoming stunned once he had saw the large stone structure resembling that of a temple. Many elites were making their way throughout the large courtyard as a large group of almost thirty sangheili were lined up in an squared phalanx formation in the middle. Wearing more traditional unpowered metal armor and holding standard metallic blades rather than the standard issue shielded combat harnesses that he had seen them wear battle. Spartan Vale could be spotted to the side watching as a sangheili major was drilling what were presumably be the sangheili military candidates comprised of both subspecies. Multiple aerial vehicles still flew above them, mostly to head down to the drop-off in the camp below but there were a pair of type-57 phantoms hovering at the edge of the courtyard away from everything.

The duo halted as Linda approached the both of them, leaving the rather erratic jackal alone at the post only two meters away from their location.

"Where is Halsey?"

"With the elite elder and kaidon in the arena. Palmer didn't want to leave her unguarded after she had run off for some unknown reason around 04:00."

The three of them quickly looked at jackal as it gave out a piercing screech, scrambling to its feet clumsily and grabbing for the beam rifle as it sat dangerously close to the edge of the fifteen meter drop. The loud noise drawing the attention of anyone nearby. It began frantically searching around and hissing loudly in a fit before eventually setting its eyes eyes on Linda, realizing that she hadn't moved far from their post. It hissed at her a final time and gave her a seemingly pissed off expression for leaving him before looking out into the stone maze of a city below. Linda was visibly irritated by the jackal, lowering her shoulders as she was agitated and quietly sighed

"Next sentry rotation is in five minutes, I could join up with you two then."

Linda nodded a silent 'affirmative' to him as she left to return to her spot right next to the jackal who was now distracted licking around his talons, supposedly trying to savor the flavor of the chunk of raw meat it once held. He looked to the arbiter who had been staring him down rather curiously. He firmly gave the elite his best 'what?' look which prompted the arbiter to shift his gaze to the ground for a second before continuing on their path. He took another look at Vale who at first was watching the elites but had quickly noticed him and waved over a quick 'hi' before folding her arms up focusing her attention back on the elites with an amused smile. Upon closer inspection of the area, Spartans Buck and Tanaka could be spotted sitting on the wide steps to the main entrance. Both were examining their weapons which looked to be clogged with the infamous red soil and like vale; lacked the majority of their armor, walking around in nothing but their techsuits.

The limiting sight out of his visor was beginning to become concerning, if he failed to be able to spot a another spartan that was barely even moving immediately then he feared what would happen if he was unable to spot a hostile. Having to rely on one's motion tracker this much isn't a good thing. He mentally sighed as the arbiter led him down a staircase off to the left side of the courtyard, close to the main entrance to the temple. These steps were slightly more wide than the ones in the canyon city on the way up but were closed in by two solid walls of thick layers of decoratively carved limestone and marble. Opening up into a vast underground training yard in a dug in pit where multiple pairs of sangheili spared against one another with various tools of war. He even noticed two elites of the Ascetic Order due to the unique style of their combat armor and exclusive use of energy scythes. Although he only knew them from vague reputation, it was strange to see them coexisting with another faction.

The entire room was lit by multiple large chandeliers bearing what looked to be plasma-based lighting in the appearance of elegantly decorative candles. Stone rows of seating edged around the pit containing the training warriors alongside with more narrow steps, many chipped away and eroded of use over possibly a very long amount of time given humanity's knowledge on the covenant and it's member species. Guards bearing metallic staves and more ceremonial armor inspired heavily by the design of the elite honor guards he had encountered on Delta halo and _High Charity_ had been guarding the entrance on their way in and around points of the temple outside. Their armor shared the same crests on the various points on the armor but the main color consisted of a more traditional metal harness pointing to be made out of an obsidian-like or completely different black metal substance. The plates that normally glew were made of a solid rusty iron plates engraved with identical spirals to that of the covenant's old design.

It seems the high-tech combat armor was only meant for those who were currently in active military service otherwise the elites who served as guards wore more traditional metal armor and those responsible for more civilian activities or those off-duty likely stayed around the cities in mere clothing.

"John!"

His limited line of sight was instantly drawn to the direction of the source of the familiar voice. Halsey was being held almost hostage in one of the corners of the arena seats, elegantly forged metallic staves pointed near her throat and chest by a number of the metal-armored guards as they surrounded her while her arms were being held behind her back. Standing next to the small group were two individual sangheili, one being both of the separate subspecies. The taller one dawning some lavishly swen robes primarily being a dark royal blue in color, as the shorter, more hunched elite,stood in a gold-steel alloy armor with smoothly flowing carvings and designs similar to the guards' forged into his armor. holding what looked to be a standard energy blade hilt in his hand while his clothed friend lacked a visible weapon.

"I apologise for the tight and security on this one, Arbiter." The armored one apologized with a bow of the head as the duo approached closer. The disdain for Halsey very clear in his raspy, non-existent voice. Upon closer inspection, he had spotted a jagged -and rather nasty- scar located at the base of his throat and worked its way up about halfway like if someone had once tired making a move toward his head with a blade. "But this frail human had already managed to to wound one of my men already when I had refused her the opportunity to run and I thought you would like it best if I restrained her rather than solve the problem myself."

Both John and Thel looked at the human in question. The phrase 'no regrets' were clear by the cold expression on her face as the one in robes revealed to them a metal curved blade, stained with the violet tar-like blood of an elite as it still slowly dropped onto the ground. John watched as the arbiter lowered his head in a sigh of frustration.

"Let her go" Thel calmly ordered, followed by a quiet 'click' from the armor around his jaws. On command the guards obeyed, lowering their staves into a neutral position before being given a dismissing nod to the entrance to the arena by the clothed sangheili that accompanied them.

"Took you long enough to show up." halsey spoke coldly at the spartan. Her voice mimicking that of an upset and almost disappointed mother scolding a child. John barely managed to keep himself from flinching at the sudden hostility from his surrogate mother as the elites now watched the two humans out of confusion and curiosity. He hadn't disappeared for _that_ long. He needed a day or two alone to think about the current situation he had unintentionally forced the entire galaxy into, but luckily the distinctively heavy steps of spartan armor echoed through the long hallway down. Linda had been true to her word as usual and joined up with their group once her shift had ended.

"What's going on?"

* * *

Commander 'Kaham took a moment to yawn as his aged phantom shuttle came to a smooth stop, his four rich-brown mandibles extending from the center of his jaw as his dark green eyes instinctively closed shut as a result of the action. He had gotten up from his sleep a little too early than originally on schedule, spending the additional time reviewing reports on the fleet's status which now sat at an impressive ninety-five percent battle efficiency readout from across the entire task-fleet.

The bay doors to the aging separatist phantom opened low to the ground as the phantom steadily approached the cliff edge where he is to be dropped off, a pair of sangheili already standing at the site ready to haul a couple of crates and a number of secured plasma batteries into the shuttle. He nodded with approval for the elites to continue on with their delivery as he holstered his silver-shelled plasma repeater onto his back and gently hopped onto the sandy ground of one of many of Nuusra's tall mesas. Tracking the demon could be difficult as rumors going around the fleet is that it had decided to keep to itself, even away from the other UNSC humans that had arrived. Right now the best he could rely on were possible directions of sightings supplied by the arbiter's soldiers and perhaps even those residing in the neighbouring city of Zohtaan Keep, but spartans being willingly allowed into the keep by the kaidon would be very unlikely as they had been known to be fiercely conservative in the covenant's faith. But a change in leadership may have been arranged if the Swords of Sanghelios

'Kaham looked around, a small rush of excitement building up inside him as his mandibles coming together in a faint small smile upon the touch of his two-toed feet landing on the ground of his home-state. However his joy was cut short ; he wasn't supposed to be here, after a failed assassination attempt on the kaidon by the elder of his clan's keep a majority of the ruling clan had been banished. Including him and his wife, although who ruled in the keep usually did not dictate if such an act had been lifted.

Shaking his head to the head lightly he turned to the trail leading to down to the canyon river. A unit of seven sangheili sword minors of the qirvian subspecies. easily identified by their gaping mouths, lighter tan skin tones, and the taller and more muscular stature. Their kind being fairly spread throughout their species' home-planet as countless generations of integration by the covenant but they primarily were thought by the sangheili as a whole to originate from the continent of Qivro, hence the name. Kaeparians -like himself- were often a bit smaller and were commonly darker toned. Four mandibles met at the center of their jaws rather than leaving the mouth exposed and usually lean in muscle structure, reasoning for the differences of physiology through the process of evolution still remained a mystery.

One of the elites almost fell to the ground after mistakenly stepping onto loose ground, holding one of many of the deceased doarmir pups the party had brought in to his chest to secure the kill and keep it from falling away as he was aided by another sangheili and the figure of one of the spartans in noticeably white armor to prevent him from falling from the edge and forcing the rest behind them from falling down violently on the step trail. The aiding spartan was quick to throw the unbalanced sangheili to the safety of the flat surface of the messa before he got the chance to jump in and help. The rest of the party slowly made their way up, not wanting to take chance of repeating the embarrassed qirvian's mistake. What he was not expecting was three additional spartans to come over the ledge all hauling an massive bruat'curo arrowhead measuring at an impressive 4.5 meters in length. The dying fish was still moving, occasionally still trying to wiggle free in a desperate measure to escape it's captors but the humans' grip on it's shining scales were that of the crushing weight of nanolaminate. Protective spines along the fins failing to pierce their armor and deliver an incredibly fatal toxin.

"What is it spartan?"

'Kaham was almost startled by the spartan commander's sudden words, exiting her mouth in a annoyed tone even though the human was seemingly unprovoked by the others. Although it could've been possible the one of the elites or even one of the other spartans had touched a nerve at some point during the expedition. He casually walked into the camp close to the trail and even approaching another soldier to engage in a shallow conversation just to appear like he wasn't intentionally listening in. The two watched as the spartans rolled the fish off their shoulders and onto a large platform alongside the elites who carelessly tossed the dead doamir onto the fish for another to cut up into a meal for the others.

"Acknowledged spartan, keep an eye on the chief and make sure he doesn't make a run for the hills until I get there. We're getting shipped out soon with the arbiter and we need everyone to be on the _Shadow of Intent_ when it departs."

'Kaham's mandibles tightened and clicked together as they passed by his location, giving a low yet unthreatening hiss them which earned a look at the spartan commander. Receiving what felt like a pissed off glare from the female's ice-blue visor and a look from one of the other spartans behind her in dark blue armor. The gold visor looking straight at him, the words 'just _don't.'_ reflected by the emotionless stare. The other female and male in the group didn't even care enough to look at him.

"Was Chief always this much of a pain in the ass?" The leading spartan asked.

"On occasion." Was the first male's response, his tone sounding flat as if she was stating a fact rather than answering the question. "Even before we went to look for Cortana he had us going on missions almost non-stop."

"Sounds like Post-Traumatic stress." The second male in the dark grey armor spoke up. 'Kaham was now greatly curious, he had met very few warriors who genuinely suffered from such disorders. Personally he wouldn't want to get involved in the spartan's mental state but knowing it would help him decide if keeping the demon would actually be worthwhile.

The spartan commander didn't stop and turn to face the others to respond. He gradually followed them with subtlety as they went. The spartans would likely catch onto him very soon and no doubt question his motives, not very many of the sangheili at the camp were curious about is whereabouts but instead openly showed caution when dealing with him. Despite the Sword's ceasefire and alliance with the UNSC and any of their involved sub-clans.

"Then it sounds like we should keep him out off this war for as long as possible, don't want him to become a liability."

She finally stopped to face the male with the blue armor and golden visor behind her.

"If things get bad then Lasky won't have much of a choice to put him on forced leave and keep him under supervision when we're back on _Infinity._ "

'Kaham had to silently agree with the leading spartan in white armor, nodding his in strong support although he still appeared to be unnoticed or simply of no concern to the group. If mental instability or loyalty was thrown into question then it was generally a good idea to keep an individual out of combat until a suitable solution could be found. The blue armored spartan nodded in understanding and they once again began moving as he followed carefully, getting looks of confusion from some of the elites who cared to notice. He stopped when they turned the corner leading to Zohtaan Keep, watching as the humans worked their way up carefully. It was strange; although there had undoubtedly been in change of leadership since the takeover of Sunaion, it would be very unlikely a still heavily-devout keep -much less the entire state of Nuusra- would be happy about the Swords of Sanghelios' occupation as the once sacred city now slowly crumbled under the weight of ocean.

'Kaham watched the spartans and the reactions from those around them very carefully as he ascended up the aged structure, meters behind the humans and out of the way of any others. The spartans were being given mixed results as some saw a source of awe and curiosity while most older members of the clan gave them glares of hate and the familiar look of wanting to kill being directed at them. He looked to the top and spotted a pair of kaeparian sangheili wearing the distinctive red and white combat harnesses belonging to the Swords of Sanghelios, each of them with a beam rifle in harnesses were not much different from his, the normally red color on standard harnesses had been traded out for a almost flat, dark grey similar to that of special operations sangheili but the secondary white panels of the armor were replaced with a metallic silver; a single red paldron on his left beared the mark of his rank of 'commander' as it paralleled with the one on his chest. The fact that none of the spartans had taken the time to distinguish him as he followed them was very interesting.

He jumped up the final step moments after the spartans had, spotting three of them on the adjacent side of the empty courtyard. Lacking their armor as it laid in front of them with various components of weaponry. Like likely to help aid them in cleaning their equipment, up here the soil wasn't as violent as it was below.

He began to walk forward as he scanned the area for the other three, catching sight of them as a pair of guards in front of a dark and exposed doorway denying them entry as they moved their staves in a defensive manner over the space. Another two pairs coming in an offensive manner from the sides and behind. 'Kaham jumped into action, running up to the growing conflict unaware that the other four spartans had done so as well with weapons drawn. The situation attracted even more guards and a handful of bystanding keep members to the location wielding staves and traditionally forged curveblades.

"The arena is off limits to your kind, human. The only ones inside are the two who came in with the arbiter's approval."

'Kaham could tell that the guard still remained from the initial siege of the keep, loyal to his original clan's ideals and refusing to accept humanity as an ally. Although how he tried to persuade the human in leaving rather than deciding to try and take the spartan commander's head showed dedication to his position. He came to a stop a few steps away and attention was almost instantaneously diverted to him as the guards focused on their potential targets.

"It may not be the arbiter's approval but these spartans have mine. They are no threat and mean no harm to the keep." 'Kaham confidently spoke, looking at the spartan commander who was giving him yet another glare from under the ice-blue visor. It was obvious the female didn't like being dependent on the word of a sangheili, especially one who had just stalked them from the moment they landed. The guards in front of them relaxed their posture a bit as the two elites faced each other for a brief moment of uncertainty, the one who had spoken looked at 'Kaham straight in the eyes.

"If you fail to manage them and they cause trouble, the kaidon will personally take your head."

' _As I haven't been under that very threat the moment I landed.'_ 'Kaham mentally shot back at him. He nodded for the three to follow him into the structure as the crowd dissipated and guards returned the doorway to an unblocked position. 'Kaham casually walked in as he felt the weight of commander and other two Spartans looking at him. One feeling slightly less upset than before as the others felt..almost empty, like the relaxed stare of a yanme'e minor. It felt abnormal or odd to come from a human's presence as they usually matched that of another sangheili. Typically full of life and keen on interaction as social creatures, even among other races for company. But these humans remained eerily silent.

"Best be careful in the state of Nuusra, humans. Aside for the change in leadership, many of it's inhabitants would still be devout in the promises of the Great Journey." He warned, carefully taking each step down the long and darkened pathway. The Spartans treaded carefully behind him, two sets in almost uniform synchronization as their heavy boots struck stone and the other more carefree. The spartan commander's steps were off-rhythm compared to the two following behind them

"Why did you follow us?" Was the commander's response, sounding nearly hostile and clearly agitated. "You've been behind us ever since you hissed at me at camp."

"I came for the same reason as you; You addressed one of your spartans about keeping the demon still. I wished to speak with him and following you meant finding the demon." 'Kaham can feel the agitation from the spartan as she was not satisfied with his answer but he couldn't risk exposing his fleetmaster's plan. "And I had meant no offense, my 'hiss' was simply one of acknowledgment, not aggression."

He turned back to the commander sharply, the look from her visor accompanied by body language was unintelligible to him with the lack of a facial expression. The commander had stopped when he did as her hand carefully hovered over one of the dual human pistols on her right thigh. A black rifle slung over onto her back secured by the armor. He just looked at the three silent spartans for a moment before continuing on his way, faltering the pace in his steps upon sight of the large, dimly-lit underground room.

Another spartan - in a rather interesting combat harness lined with lenses- and two sangheili watched along the fenced edge of the pit. A qirvian who seemed a bit thinner than most dawning the noble blue robes of an Elder and an unrecognizable elite in the traditional armor of the Kaidon of Nuusra, a set he had seen once before. A pair of Kaeparian guards belonging to the keep remained at a distance, keeping their staves in hand and ready to strike at the back of an unarmed and handicapped who appeared to be struggling to remain standing, leaning against the rail preventing those from falling down. It made sense to him; This human was not 'changed' like the others were, lacking the strength to stand up for vast amounts of time due to Sanghelios' noticeably heavy atmosphere when compared to the different worlds humans had prefered to inhabit.

The four moved to the groups location, 'Kaham choosing to stand by the spartan with the strange combat harness and the disabled human in white and light blue clothing for unconventional protection rather than closer to the unknown Kaidon who may recognize him and immediately order his execution. Following their sight into the arena his mandibles gaped slightly once he had noticed both the demon and arbiter were engaged in a sparring match against one another, using fully active plasma blades rather than the non-lethal gas-based training equipment normally used for such occasion. The two must have deep trust in one another to risk severe wounds. What further confused him was that the demon was in possession of a Vorpal Talon, usually they were only given to highest ranking of sangheili officers. Most notably belonging to those who had been among the disbanded order of the Lights of Sanghelios during their covenant empire's reign, their rarity and history making them quite a valuable and almost priceless find to treasure seekers and collectors. Both warriors were incredibly experienced. When one attacked, the other would flawlessly counter; using both the structure of their blades to balance out their nature.

The demon jumped back quickly from a blow that would have otherwise cut through the chest of his combat harness, catching the Prophet's Bane in between the dual blades of the Talon and throwing his weight to the side to send the orange blade flying from its owner. The arbiter refused to give up the match so easily and pulled out his personal curveblade, stomping a golden-clad foot on the ground and into an defensive stance to entice the demon to attack. Many elites who had been inhabiting the arena were now gathering around the railing all around he pit to watch as the champions of both humanity and Sangheili engage in yet another violent dance.

What could be understood as respect and honor for his opponent; the green demon stood and sheathed his blade, tossing it to the side in the direction in which the arbiter's had fallen. 'Kaham watched as the infamous spartan opened one of the plates on his wrist and slowly pulled out a large metallic combat knife that he had kept hidden. Murmurs had started circulating around the arena quietly by those watching and heard one of the spartans close to him shift their weight, as to be uncomfortable with what has been going on. The demon moved into his own offensive stance with his blade confidently faced outward as the two began to slowly move in a circle, orbiting the point of dirt between them before the arbiter had charged quickly. Again the demon was too quick as he dodged out of the way to the side with the aid of built-in thrusters, many of the onlooking sangheili groaned in disappointment at the appearance of an 'unfair' spar but the silent minority of intrigued sangheili such as himself spoke none. The humans did not speak but a look at them said everything. The three spartans just watched silently, avoid of any emotion from view as their commander watched closely; assessing possible combat capability. The smaller white-haired human seemed almost smug at the display.

The metal blades struck one another time after time until the arbiter had struck a blow to the top of his opponent's head, stunning the demon temporarily as he backed up to balance himself. The arbiter quickly moved in on the human who caught both of the sangheili's arms while still holding onto his blade and thrust them into a deadlock, both parties trying to throw the other onto the ground with brute strength. The human demon lashed at him, headbutting the arbiter hard in the bottom of his jaws and continued with a rough kick to his golden-armored chest. Dropping roughly onto the dirt ground.

John quickly gained balance and pulled his knife to the arbiter's throat, only to realize the sangheili's smug look from under the golden helmet. He slowly trailed his vision up the arbiter's right arm and froze when he saw the edge of the arbiter's curveblade pointed at his stomach.

' _Tie?'_ John asked him silently, looking back at the sangheili's now neutral expression.

' _Tie.'_ Arbiter nodded.

John nodded slightly and backed away from the elite a few paces, allowing the massive sangheili to get up as he opened the plate on his wrist to carefully place the knife back. The arbiter growled as he got up, looking above them at the seats as the crowd of sangheili trainees began to leave, following their assigned leaders out of the room and through the various halls attached to the room. He walked over to the hilts of their swords and tossed the Prophet's Bane over to arbiter who had caught it with ease, securing the strange blade that had been given to him. Looking up he noticed that Palmer, Fred, and Kelly had shown up at some point during his spar with the arbiter, joined by an elite and looked at him straight on before backing to walk away. A part of him raised suspicion about the strange elite as he walked with the arbiter into a small hallway connected to the pit, torches lighting each side symmetrically. He followed the golden-clad sangheili a moment through the tunnel until he suddenly stopped, face-to face with the elite he had saw above.

"Arbiter!" He bowed his head down while moving a closed fist to his chest in a sangheili salute, even attempting to kneel before his superior before being halted by the taller sangheili.

"What business do you have being here, commander?"

"I am aware that we do not have much time left until our fleets are to depart, Arbiter. I only wish to speak to the spartan before the newly-formed taskforce -the Fleet of Belligerent Coercion- departed to bring the fight to the Created."

"The Fleet of Belligerent Coercion?"

"Fleetmaster 'Trakam saw it fitting as we had been neglected a official title, barbaric in my opinion but I say it gets our message across."

Thel looked the ground to ponder on it, quickly looking to the elite and nodding in approval at the name at his surprise. "Xuda 'Trakam takes much after Jul 'Mdama in terms of brutality but thankfully they do not share the same ideology."

Arbiter took the quick moment to properly secure his curveblade and sword onto his armor. "I will work on formally establishing your fleet as we depart, but it is not up to me if the spartan wishes to talk to you."

John nodded silently to his friend who had looked away from the elite and into his direction with an unsure look, of this elite caused any trouble he could easily subdue him for the Elder to deal with or put the elite down himself if necessary. The arbiter nodded in understanding at the spartan's choice and left, leaving the two to talk in private.

"I suppose you would like to know why I am talking to you."


	3. Prepare for Action

Chapter 3

Prepare for Action

* * *

 _17 November, 2558_

 _State of Nuusra, Sanghelios_

 _15:30 hours_

The _Shadow of Intent_ loomed a few hundred meters over their position, casting a massive shadow onto the keep and far out into the canyons below them. Light from all three of sanghelios' suns having been blocked by the four-and-a-half century year old capital ship, giving the impression that the suns had set early and many of the military staff were now using night-vision equipment to navigate around the camp. It wasn't much of a problem to him, however. His eyes had almost instantaneously adapted to the low amount of light reaching the surface, allowing him to see very clearly in the darkened environment with little to no electronic aid. A result of the SPARTAN II augmentations. John hadn't seen any more of the sangheili drills in the center of the courtyard since the _Intent_ had arrived on their location a little more than a half-hour ago and it has been mostly quiet since. The keep's courtyard looked more abandoned as the others had gone inside to accompany Commander Palmer in the discussion of fleet protocol in the likely case of encountering guardians or other varying threats before they had set out to try and locate _Infinity_.

The extra seven spartans that made up Osiris and the remainder of Blue Team would be unnecessary as Commander Palmer has proven herself to be a fairly formidable opponent when it was just her alone, not mentioning the fact that they were currently in a non-hostile environment. That much security alone was generally excessive but with the inclusion of a number of elite Keep Guards inside, it was unlikely that anything bigger than three feet would be able to break the front line into the building's main entrance. Especially at the moment as he patrolled around the courtyard perimeter with his MA5D assault rifle in hand, taking place of the guards who had been reassigned to the inside.

What he didn't understand is why had Cortana left Sanghelios fully-operational while she didn't hesitate to deploy guardians and likely promethean forces to other colonies once they were ready. Was she expecting them to split their forces to try finding the _Infinity_ and leave the planet more vulnerable for an attack? or was she not even going to bother with the planet?

From what he observed over the last couple of decades, a conventional attack on the ground may end up proving difficult as the elites appeared to be very organized when operating on the ground. It was the matters of naval power and air superiority coming into the equation where things become concerning. Cortana had promised those who followed her limitless resources and that would undoubtedly include ships and strike-craft and when coupled with the fact that they had no idea what the full capability of a single guardian was, they were left at a significant disadvantage.

 _She can't win. you won't let her._

John paused as his heart felt like it had stopped for a brief moment out of pure shock. Unable to distinguish the words that had just ran coldly through his head. It 'felt' as though it was his mind and yet it was completely foreign, like something was trying to reach out to him from somewhere else. It felt incredibly nauseating as he shifted his weight onto his other leg to keep himself up. He shook the feeling away as he breathed in and out deeply as he heard what sounded like an entire squadron of banshees approaching his location. He turned to the mountain that the keep had been built into and watched as a number of banshees flew over the top out of what remained of his visor, escorting a lich in formation around the front and back of the bigger vehicle. Upon reaching the courtyard the banshees had split off into two different groups as the lich slowed down to settle meters over the center of the flattened space. They were likely deployed from the _Shadow of Intent_ , possibly indicating that the arbiter and the others were close to finishing their business with the elder counsel on the planet.

Although brief, the distraction from his own thoughts was greatly appreciated. He personally didn't expect the situation to change once they had boarded the _Intent_. Slipspace would still days to complete and while they were out of combat there would be little to do. The arbiter would likely deal with the situation with his ships at a distance and focus on locating the _Infinity_ before any serious action against cortana would be taken as opposed to the offer he had gotten earlier by the sangheili commander who had informed him that his superior intended to bring the fight to Cortana once he had met up with a number of insurrection and brute ships he had arranged a meeting with to help. They had allied with the insurrection on a handful occasions during the Human-Covenant war, and then they had accepted the elites under the arbiter's command within the final days of the covenant in East Africa and The Ark. It wouldn't be very different to once again ally themselves with enemies over the common goal of survival. This matter wasn't very different in that regard.

Normally he wouldn't consider being labeled as 'AWOL' a very intimidating threat but given that there was a serious difference in the situation with cortana already having caused countless casualties to not only humanity, but the other species as well by the sound of it; He currently considered more of a liability rather than an asset in the conflict. If he went anywhere than he could potentially labeled as a traitor by any remaining ONI representatives quickly with possibly little resistance from commanding officers of the UNSC. If he went then Blue team and Osiris would surely be enough to defend the _Shadow of Intent_ or _Infinity_ _from_ an attack on the inside of it were to come to it. The sangheili commander had told him that the option of Blue Team coming along with them was open although it was preferable for his fleetmaster that he came alone if he had chose to go, and giving what was currently at stake it would be very unlikely that they would be willing to once again go AWOL in pursuit of Cortana. Leaving with the sangheili both offered the UNSC great tactical advantage or huge risk, Cortana may be expecting him to stay with those he were more familiar with then disappearing almost completely.

 _you can't justify it. Go._

John looked over at the horizon, hesitating a moment as he adjusted his weight again and subtlety tried to shake away the nausea as it returned. Immediately he had let out a quiet sigh and started walking, throwing his rifle onto his back and receiving looks of confusion and caution from the remaining guards. He almost groaned in annoyance as the stubborn sickness refused to recede, he would have to possibly get it checked later if it became a recurring nuisance. He carefully made his way down the stone stairs and into the sangheili city, keeping himself close to the brick walls as much as possible and his head angled to the right to make sure he didn't fall off the unguarded edge. Many gave him looks of hatred as he passed but he simply brushed them aside and ignored them as they cursed him under their breath as he left, spouting words like 'demon', 'destroyer', the most interesting and seemingly most creative insult being 'false being'. Barked at him by male sangheili in brown robes.

He dropped down the few final steps and took his time in walking through the almost non-existent sangheili camp. Very few tents still remained as both grunts and elites provided labor in moving the remainder supplies into arriving dropships while jackals stood along the higher vantage points of nearby cliffs and ruins with weapons in hand, scanning the surroundings in the case of danger. John was quick to notice that Palmer's pelican was in a much better condition than how he had saw it last earlier in the week. Rather than being on fire and looking like it was barely holding together by the use of simple glue, it now looked as if it could withstand the exit and entering of atmosphere a couple of times before it would be torn up.

" _Chief, where are you? The Arbiter's lich had just launched from the keep and we're heading back to the pelicans down at the camp._ "

His attention was grabbed by Palmer's voice over the comms and the sound of light footsteps coming up to his left side. The sangheili commander in grey and white armor from before had approached him from behind, green eyes lit by a white-outlined lense looking at him quizzingly as if he was waiting for his response like Commander Palmer was. His head slightly tilted as mandibles rested tightly against his jaw. The heavy sound of the departing lich echoed loudly throughout the camp, his motion tracker easily picking up the large vehicle as it flew over them in steadily increasing altitude.

John could almost feel the commander's building rage and confusion on the other end of the transmission as he refused to answer. Quickly killing the comm dead just to avoid answering, he stood there for a moment to let the reality of what he just did sink in. The elite looked at him in a shallow state of confusion as of he was trying to understand what was going on inside his head, something that he didn't seem to completely comprehend himself. He gave the sangheili next to him a small, affirmative nod and the small sangheili's dark green eyes blinked at him with an empty expression for a moment before returning the gesture.

"They'll be here quickly with what you had just done, spartan. Best we get moving." the sangheili said, giving a shake of his head before leading him to an green T52 phantom hovering idly nearby. It was a sight he hadn't seen in a short while but it was a welcoming one. Ever since the Battle of Installation 00 it appeared that the T44 model had faded into obscurity in favor of the newer ones he had been seeing more recently. Likely as a result of budget costs. The UNSC ran into a similar problem with the G79-TC/MA as it didn't seem to make it to mass production until after the UNSC had time to recover from the Human-Covenant war.

The phantom's gravity lift activated and the sangheili gestured for him to get in with the nod of his head and slight opening of his mandibles. The familiar feeling of temporary weightlessness that was commonly experienced with gravity lifts took over as he was gently picked up and carried into the cabin of the unexpectedly spacious craft. The pilot -being the Ruuthtian subspecies of jackal- looked at him in alarm and confusion from the cockpit as the sangheili followed him in. The sangheili walked up to the opened cockpit and ordered the jackal to return to the ship as John looked around the nearly phantom. The T44 seemed a bit smaller on the inside than he remembered.

The sangheili commander returned from the cabin fairly quickly and chose to stand across from him as incoherent but noticeably upset screeching filled the space.

"I suppose proper introductions are in order, after all I had denied you thus far."

"The arbiter mentioned you are a commander."

The sangheili nodded with a bow to his head, something he had quickly understood as an act of respect to another individual.

"I am Commander Jero 'Kahamee of the Swords of Sanghelios. Second only to that of fleetmaster Xuda 'Trakamai himself."

'Kaham reached his open four-fingered palm open to him in greeting. John was a small bit uncomfortable on how formal the elite had quickly presented himself to be in was considered to be human etiquette but didn't let it get to him as he firmly shook the elite's hand in response. From what he could see, 'kaham looked a bit nervous as his eyes often tried to avoid contact with his visor, giving the impression that he was a bit more meek around him than other sangheili he encountered.

"Earlier you had said 'Trakam'."

"The traditional double-E and 'ai' suffixes to our clan names were symbols of our involvement in the covenant empire's military. An aspect that continued into many of the remnants who are likely still fighting for control despite under the threat of the created."

"You're ex-covenant?"

He nodded to provide confirmation as he pulled the Plasma repeater off his back and pressed a small plate of the side of the weapon and it forced the shell to collapse, exposing the insides that headed the plasma out into view and inspected it intensely. "we had left only months ago after Jul 'Mdama had carelessly set Requiem into the sun, nearly taking your navy's flagship with it. 'Trakamai had become outraged as he had took it as evidence of 'Mdama's lack of reverence for the artifacts that the forerunners left behind."

'Kaham closed up the weapon and swung it back over his shoulder and onto his back.

"However, it does not matter how you choose to address us but those transferred from arbiter's camp may be confused as they had abandoned the tradition completely."

The two had stood in uncomfortable silence for the remainder of the shuttle's flight, having exhausted the conversation topic. The ruuthian squawked loudly back in their direction and 'Kaham turned his back to him and shifted to the door. John followed suit and stood next to the dark-brown skinned sangheili as the door carefully opened a foot away from the purple platform inside the larger ship. The two hopped onto the other platform as the jackal took a moment to shut the craft down in its current position before leaving the craft itself. The two stayed still as the jackal left, passing a massively tall sangheili in a zealot harness.

The zealot's mandibles hung slightly open and closed periodically, lining up with the helmet except the top left which the guard seemed to be fused onto the base of the helmet. The Mandible itself cut down to nothing but a small 'nub' at the base of his skull, barely moving. A small grunt hunching over to reach an incredibly low four feet in height chased eagerly after the massive sangheili unaware of the duo as he was more entranced by the black, neatly sewn light fur-cape with silver designs embedded on the underside which could only described as 'ritualistic' being dragged by the sangheili. The zealot's armor wasn't a pale pinkish-red like others of his rank like he had expected but rather a much stronger and darker variation of the color coming close to maroon with a slight purple hue. Dark purple blood stains were present on the mandible guards and followed to the chest of the armor which was in a good condition otherwise. The two elites and spartan quickly faced to the grunt who had just shrieked after noticing him. The four foot unggoy began to slowly back away in fear of the spartan and before running off in typical grunt fashion as his two stoney forearms flailed back and forth repeatedly as he cried.

A growl of annoyance left 'Kaham's jaws as the zealot simply ignored it, a grey eye with a heavily faded gold tone staring down at the smaller human in front of him in a show of intimidation. The zealot's right eye was going blind while his face had subtlety turned into a what appeared to be a disappointed scowl underneath his helmet as John stood still unflinching before him.

"Demon." He acknowledged, arching his back to his full height. John had watched as the zealot stood confidently at his height of eight-seven as 'Kaham only stood four inches taller than himself at a small seven-six

"Fleetmaster." John replied, unfazed at the sangheili's attempt at a display of dominance.

'Trakamai hissed and quickly turned his attention to 'Kaham who seemed to be looking a bit more confident with the change of environment. " **Alert the fleet, tell them that we are leaving. Then look for that unggoy and tell him to wait at the command bridge.** "

'Kaham nodded and gave The spartan one more look before heading down the same narrow path that the jackal and grunt had traveled on the large qirvian's command. The hanger was an almost similar setup he had seen on the _Shadow of Intent_ on their way to the ark about five years ago, except it had a much different arrangement of dropship platforms.

"You. Come with me." He growled, turning a one-eighty degree spin almost flawlessly despite the cape causing a heavy wave of resistance. That had to be difficult to perform due to the sangheili's natural digitigrade legs and the added weight of the cape behind him as it thrashed behind him. 'Trakamai moved in long strides comparable to that of a skirmisher and quickly proved difficult to keep up with at a normal walking speed causing him to speed up to a slow jog so that he could remain close but keep a fair amount of distance.

' _where exactly is he leading me?_ '

* * *

 _Ierus System, CSO-class supercarrier_ _Exalted Injunction_

 _1200 hours_

"Supreme Commander 'Dantakee!"

The kaeparian sangheili in question turned his back from the hologram displaying the landscape of the world they had been deployed to and over to the approaching human upon the mention of his name, lifting the helmet to his combat harness off of his throne where it had sat and joined it with the rest the his armor on his person. The armor's silver color glimmered in the poor lighting of the carrier's command bridge, reflections from the low purple light revealing countless scratches scattered across the surface. Results of a skirmish between him and a group of humans who had managed to bring his squad into a trap on the human planet they called 'Reach' during the colony's conquest.

"What?" He hissed at the human. The female recoiled in shock before regaining her composure.

"We are approaching Necruna. Exiting slipspace within the next hour while the ships already present at the location report approaching UNSC vessels and heavy ground resistance by multiple spartan fireteams."

Rtol quickly picked up his plasma rifle and fastened it to the armor on his thigh as he quickly rushed to get in his chair, tripping the five-foot tall female human as she passed him. The covenant should have left their homeworld inhabitable and exterminate them once and for all like the vermin they are rather than focus on the Ark as a priority. The forerunners themselves had judged humanity as an unclean filth that must be cleansed through the words of the holy prophets, yet now the matriarch and Warden Eternal was willing to make exceptions for those who threw down their arms or act as servants for their cause. He was disappointed that members of a race that once fought tooth and nail not so long ago in order to survive the slaughter brought by their hands now willingly surrendered out of fear for their own lives. Half of him was angered that it was the matriarch who managed to subdue humanity and not the covenant while the other was not surprised as the power of the gods was limitless. They could do what they chose to do with their power. "Any word of the _Infinity_?"

"None Supreme Commander, but we had just lost contact with the _Turbulent_ _Blade_." one of his majors informed him.

"Was it destroyed?"

"No, the shipmaster of the _Violent Repercussion_ suspects the destroyer is in the process of being captured."

Rtol leaned back into his chair, looking at the screen which had lit up with footage transmitted from the _Repercussion_ as they took place in real-time. There were few of the UNSC's more stronger warships but they were a few in number and still embarrassingly weak compared to even the brigantines of old. They may hold out for a while but once they arrive they will quickly be crushed.

"Tell the fleet to destroy the _Turbulent_ _Blade_. I will not risk capture."

The major nodded and proceeded to type into the console in front of them. It only took three minutes for the order to relay through the commanding CAS carrier and throughout the rest of the fleet, a number of nearby ships moved into position to get a clear shot at the stalling CPV-class destroyer and fired. UNSC ships quickly taken advantage of the distraction and fired at the partially exposed bow of the _Violent Repercussion._

The attacks were mostly useless but considerable damage was done to the _Violent Repercussion_ as the _Turbulent_ _Blade_ began firing upon its attackers in its own defense. Multiple CRS light cruisers were quickly destroyed by the struggling destroyer and the _Violent Repercussion_ fell back with the small amount of battlecruisers in a defensive manner as they had trouble focusing between the human ships and the _Turbulent_ _Blade_. The leading human ship launched projectiles at the _Violent Repercussion_ as it fired a series of plasma torpedoes back in their direction, making it through the shield and striking hard against the bow.

Rtol straitened up in his seat as the transmission had been cut.

"How much further until we reach the planet?!"

"The current slipspace vector to Necruna will require a few more minutes to reach the site, Supreme Commander."

"Exit slipspace now."

"But- we will be kilometers away-"

Rtol got up from his seat and marched up to the human, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her up to his face.

"Use the planet's gravity to arch the plasma torpedoes." He dropped her and watched the human's fragile form hit hard on the floor. As expected she quickly got up rubbing the spot where he had grabbed her and nodded, shying away as she nudged the major at the controls closest to her. The elite nodded in understanding of what was to be done and quickly got to work. "If we lose communications with anymore ships then they are to be destroyed. No exceptions."

"Of course, Supreme Commander."


	4. The Fall of Necruna

Chapter 4

The Fall of Necruna

* * *

 _17 November, 2558_

 _CAS Assault carrier, Seeker of Truth_

 _17:00 hours_

Xuda walked around to the opposite side of the holotable between him and the human demon who stood before him, stomping heavily and striking the metallic ground below the both of them with each step. 'Kaham was standing by his fleetmaster's side, holding onto the methane tank of the same grunt he has encountered earlier - who John had learned was named 'Supap'- as he tried to bite at the elite's arm in order to get away. The small sangheili stood unflinching as Supap kept trying to throw his weight in order to loosen his grip on him but 'Kaham was only getting more and more pissed at the smaller creature.

A hologram of thegalaxy lit up over the table with different locations marked, mostly the homeworld of each species and known halo installations including the Ark. the map zoomed in onto a sector within the Scutum-Centaurus arm, revealing a rather unique planet. The translated sangheili glyphs reported a vast range of

"Is this where we are going?"

Xuda nodded. "I have been told by our allies that this planet houses a potential forerunner installation. To what scale is uncertain but we do know it has some importance as forerunner constructs had been recently spotted fighting among themselves."

"Prometheans fighting with each other?"

The massive elite's obsidian black nails lightly scraped against the purple metal outlining the table before. John dismissed the sangheili's irritated tone directed at him and watched as the hologram zoomed in onto a section within the northern hemisphere which currently seemed to be in a state of freezing winter. He was shown images of a small roughly built human-designed base with both brutes and humans inhabiting the space and spotted a small number of tundra-coated falcons, M808 scorpions and M9 wolverines. Although the majority of their equipment was not painted and mostly outdated with Human-Covenant War designs they looked to have a fairly impressive arsenal on the ground already. As for the brutes he couldn't be certain but Xuda appeared to be interested in the small captured form of a jiralhanae faded into snowstorm.

"Not necessarily the prometheans, spartan." 'Kaham spoke up. "The brute war chieftain Paktus had sent us news that the installation's own defense system may have turned on your former Construct's promethean force."

The place was likely then ran by a monitor who didn't take too kindly to hostile attempts at a takeover of the installation much like Exuberant Witness on Genesis. Supap screeched which consequently grabbed their attention, 'Kaham had accidentally pulled on the vent of the grunt's pack which would slowly suffocate him if it wasn't fixed. Xuda quickly barked at 'kaham to release the grunt and the unggoy quickly fixed his own harness and got up quickly, running around the table and close to Xuda, trying to hide behind him as he clung onto the back of the large elite's leg. John was momentarily confused as instead of lashing out again like he expected, Xuda carefully grabbed his cape and slowly draped it over the cowering grunt to completely cover him. His face had turned from one of aggression to one displaying a much more soft display, almost one of parental care similar to that he and the other spartan II candidates would often get from Halsey during the first few weeks of bootcamp when they were six.

John could see that 'kaham looked at him as if he was rolling his eyes in an annoyed state and Xuda seemed to be a tad bit embarrassed that he had saw what just happened, realizing that he had just lost any chance to intimidate him after he had just witnessed him protect a grunt. None of them spoke for a moment before Xuda had decided to break the silence.

"Did the brutes activate the defense system?" He growled, heavy with disdain and annoyance as he shifted the wait on his feet.

"Unknown Fleetmaster. However I hope that they did not alert the enemy of their habitation on the planet."

Xuda growled and leaned over his side of the holotable, looking at one of the images of showing a forerunner structure next to a lake that had been frozen over. "Are communications to their fleets still open?"

"Communications to their ships are, but access to the base itself has not been set up yet."

John felt unease as he witnessed Supap move out from underneath the elite's cape and hugged Xuda from the side, angled away from both him and 'Kaham. The smaller sangheili only yawned, green eyes coming to a close as he then made a teasing bite of his mandibles at the unggoy which ended with the grunt holding a tight grip on the red combat harness of the Fleetmaster with his stone-like claws. The large elite sighed with an irritated growl and gestured to the door exiting the bridge with a motion of his head. 'Kaham looked at him and nodded before leaving, the spartan followed suit as he silent followed the commander out but were stopped by a low hiss from Xuda.

"Take the demon to the forge, get his equipment repaired. We are expected to exit slipspace sometime soon and we will have to be on the ground as soon as possible."

'Kaham nodded silently to his shipmaster and led the spartan out, the two walking silently as they navigated the bright, purple halls.

John only followed the elite as he lead him to the forge under uncomfortable silence. Personally he never found the designs on the interior of covenant or sangheili ships very distracting but more on the side of being unnecessarily decorative a majority of the time. He could feel 'Kaham staring him down on the back of his neck. What was going on with the crew on this ship? Xuda always seemed irritated with him, Supap looked to be terrified, and although 'Kaham was much more tolerant in having a spartan on board like the others, he seemed off and a bit over-friendly than what he had expected from a sangheili. Even if he was now part of the Swords, he was still ex-storm covenant and behavior like that was most likely not common.

* * *

 _Necruna, CSO supercarrier Exalted Injunction_

 _17:00 hours_

Rtol frowned. The humans continued to delay their inevitable destruction and it frustrated him. The _Turbulent Blade_ now drifted as floating debris over the near-ocean planet alongside a number of his own and the UNSC's ships. Rtol kept his flagship at bay, accompanied by a number of small ships as they sat watching from a distance while arching plasma torpedoes at the few in-range human vessels to whittle down their numbers as the rest of his ships were ahead taking the fight directly. The _Violent Repercussion_ was close by, having fallen back after have taken a significant beating to the bow and losing the ability to fire the ship's extraction beam and a majority of firing systems as well. They still had a number of ships even if the humans were left with ten, not including the flagship which had been identified as an experimental variant of the human Autumn-class capital. Its name- the _UNSC Determination of Hope_ \- was plastered onto it's side in white paint against a dark hull like any other human-constructed vessel.

Destroying that ship would be extra satisfying and he leaned his back into seat, but he would have to put his own desire behind as the matriarch had personally asked him to subjugate anyone he saw worthy in the effort to track the _Infinity_

the human female still stood by the major ahead of him by the ship's display. Almost hiding submissively away from him. He watched as a CCS battlecruiser and a corvette both combust into flames for a small, brief moment and exploding after their energy shielding had been breached. The debris had struck nearby ships due to being in a tight formation, destroying another three ships and crippling a supporting CRS carries

The human looked over to him in uncertainty for direction on what to do and he internally scoffed. He looked at the display and studied the much smaller vessels as they moved into a more defensive position.

"Order the rest to fall back and move us in with our escort ahead of us. I am done waiting for the shipmaster to get the situation controlled. And then I want to open fire, make their ships scatter and leave the capital ship open."

The major nodded and gently pushed the human away to the side in order to reach a set on controls at his station. Rtol was greatly tempted to just move the female down to infantry among the cannon fodder like the kig-yar and unggoy where she would be sent to die on the field like the honorless creature she was if she wasn't eaten by the others first. Better yet, he may be able to could get her moved onto one of the jiralhanae-controlled ships under the Matriarch's control. Perhaps the _Violent Repercussion_ if it survived the conflict as it was already closeby.

"And be sure not to destroy the autumn-class carrier, leave it for capture."

"What about ground forces, Supreme Commander?" an officer asked him. "Spartan fireteams on the small spaces of land and any known UNSC bases of operations are being suppressed but they have initiated their evacuation to the ships, reports of captured locations having had all data erased by the humans."

"Any confirmation on slain demons?"

The officer was quiet for a moment as he gathered the data on his console. "Six confirmed kills supreme commander. Only one entire team of four individuals."

"Then tell them to keep on the pressure but make haste, they may bring their 'cole protocol' into effect."

"Supreme Commander 'Dantakee!" the Major grabbed his attention. "The human ships are deploying everything they have to the surface! Escape and drop pods, dropships, everything!"

Rtol straitened up in his seat and activated the primary control panel mounted onto his seat and watched as the human ships gathered almost into an arrow-like formation around the _Determination_. He didn't like the looks of the situation and activated the Ship's homing beacon for one of the Matriarch's guardians to follow in on. It was meant as a signal for when he had subdued the opposing force but a EMP Pulse from the custode and promethean backup would prove helpful at the moment. It could also provide a large help in capturing the ships as they would not have a way to fight back once power was stripped.

"Change of plans, officer. Order any deployed dropships within a kilometer back to their respective ships."

"Major." The red-armored elite in question looked in his direction in the corner of his eye. "Have the fleet prepare for a in-system slipspace jump to the other side of the planet upon the guardian's arrival. Let the humans get caught in the pulse."

The major nodded and got back to work, although he braced himself once he had spotted three of the smaller human ships had successfully slipped into the _Exalted Injunction_ shields. The guns were tempted to cease firing in the caution to prevent accidental firing on the nanolaminate hull. Rtol merely smiled smugly They were going to exhaust all their weapons on points of the now exposed plaiting before likely accepting their fate or drive their own ships into the _Injunction_ in a final attempt to do damage. He looked at the human and watched as her face filled with horror, begging for them to run then give up their lives so easily. In truth he prefered it that way, not out of the well-being for the human but it would give him yet another task to do. Letting his prey get away just to come down moments later for the kill when they think they're safe.

One of the ships was successfully destroyed and the others quickly hid behind the debris, beginning to use their smaller point-defense weapons to catapult larger chunks of the fallen ship at the CSO carrier. It didn't have much effect outside of completely detaching one of the carrier's own smaller point-defense weapons but the quick assault of projectiles that they called 'archer missiles' punctured the hull by sheer force and numbers, destroying a small block and several cannons. Another one of the ships had been shot down and debris collided with the remaining ship's engine and caused it to begin slowly drifting closer. Seraph fighters and phantom gunboats quickly intercepted the malfunctioning spacecraft before it exploded, an outcome that could only be comprehended as an action of self-destruction. Taking the Phantoms and seraphs with it and punching yet another hole into his ship.

"All craft are onboard, Supreme Commander." the officer informed him

The matriarch's guardian had finally dropped out of slipspace and the major announced that the ship was jumping across the ship's internal intercom. He read on the bridge's display any of his slipspace-capable ships had followed suit, only taking minutes to reach their destination and slowly moving back to their previous position as the remaining human ships and a couple of his own who failed to jump now stalled motionless above the planet. Rtol stood from his seat as he noticed the culmination of a light blue mass gathering at the front of the bridge near the display, his men at their controls stood at their spot and brought their heads down and fists to their chest in a salute as he took a step or two before dropping down and knelt before the mass as it manifested itself into a solid object. He kept his head down out of respect for the Matriarch as she approached him.

"Supreme Commander Rtol 'Dantakee.. I'm surprised you decided to leave a few after all." she teased him, voice coming off playfully.

"I believe these may aid in our search for the _Infinity_ , Matriarch. If not they may hold useful information regarding other worlds they had chosen to hide in."

He felt a small pressure on the top of his helmet and the blue-glowing hand of the matriarch slided down the side of his helmet and on his chin, lifting his head gently and he slowly stood up in response. "I want you to sent your men onto those ship, the _Determination of Hope_ being the priority target."

He nodded in submission and she began to walk away.

"And tell your men that if they find John on any of those ships... I want him _alive,_ preferably unharmed if possible."

"But- Matriarch."

Cortana turned around and looked at him right in the eyes causing the sangheili to freeze up immediately.

"But _what?_ Supreme Commander."

"I must express my concern regarding the demon you insist on calling by name." He shifted his legs as she began walking back forwards him. "The Demon could be much more trouble than it is worth."

"Do you think I am not capable of keeping a single spartan contained, Supreme Commander?"

Rtol bowed his head down in respect quickly. "It's not that holy one, but the demon-"

"then find him. And when you are done with the fleet- either if you choose to destroy it after gathering the data or let me send another fleet to secure the ships for our own use- continue looking for the _Infinity_."

Rtol stood quietly for a moment and nodded, defeated. "As you wish, Matriarch."

The blue form of the matriarch seemingly evaporated into thin air and he turned to the officer. "I will depart on the next phantom to the flagship personally."

The major looked over at him and nodded "I will order for the huragok to start internal repairs while you are away, Supreme Commander."

Rtol nodded. "That will be best." His eyes shifted to the human female who had been staring at the ground to avoid eye contact the entire time. He approached her and she looked up at the towering seven-ten figure, grabbing her by the arm he hissed lowly from under his helmet. "And you are coming with me."

Rtol grabbed the human by the arm and dragged her all the way to phantom waiting for them as she fought back with him, trying to desperately break the iron grip. He threw her on the ground of the phantom in front of a number of sangheili warriors of both subspecies who only looked down at the human in confusion before choosing to ignore it. She slowly got up during the ride and attempted to hide behind one of the other elites but she had been gently pushed back to the center. The phantom stopped within one of the hangars of the _Determination_ and the elites immediately began to fight the resistance that gathered in the area. Humans were firing at them from a control center above with their primitive projectile-based weapons wielded by a number of their own standard subspecies, there was an unexpected lack of their genetically augmented siblings but it would only work in their favor. Semi-automatic fire rained down onto them from above and they all dashed to the covering overhang that the room created, dragging the human by force as she chose to try and hide rather than fight.

The humans were alarmed upon seeing her with them, either shocked that a member of their own race was in such distress or accompanying them on their crusade. Reaching the bridge was easy, Humans often left directions on the ground to key locations or entire terminals dedicated to maps on their ships. Before the Covenant Empire had gotten their quick understanding of the human's primary languages, identifying the text would have been much more difficult. The lack of any real opponents did not help, waves of human cannon fodder quickly fell before their might. Only the weaker sangheili fell to their weapons. Unsurprisingly the ship's bridge had been sealed tight, causing them to have to wait until backup shock troopers armed with heavier weaponry such as fuel rod cannons to arrive and blast the door open.

Every human in the room began firing upon them with small arm fire. Rtol quickly threw the human in front of him to use as a shield, her screams of pain erupted in the air as she was struck by a single bullet in the right forearm and the human crew stopped firing after their shipmaster raised an arm in their direction as an order.

Rtol quickly raised his half-drained rifle up to the female's head as a means of bargaining to gain the advantage.

"You will surrender your ship and all its data intact or I won't hesitate to melt the female's head."

The human only laughed at him in a short burst and Rtol silently frowned in not understanding what the shipmaster found amusing.

"We deleted what we had before we even came here as a precaution, Lasky knew it was only a matter of time you would be arriving at Necruna and we willingly volunteered to slow you down specifically."

Just as the shipmaster finished Rtol had noticed a large series of explosions behind his own CSO carrier, turning the human roughly to the side to get a better look outside of the bridge's window which caused the fragile being in his grasp to whimper in pain. The _Violent Repercussion_ has been destroyed by a colliding cruiser, looking as if it had been purposely driven into the assault carrier. Another CAS carrier he had taken with him on his journey, the _Consequence of Revolution_ began detaching blocks and firing upon them. Human demons must have infiltrated the ship and the officer in charge must be trying to solve the issue on his own. Rtol growled and turned to the spec-ops sangheili to his left behind him. "return to the _Exalted Injunction._ Tell the major to keep touch with the _Revolution_ for updates about their situation and if communications are cut then destroy it. And increase security around all ports of spacecraft access."

The special operations sangheili nodded silently to his commanding officer and turned around to leave as Rtol focused once again on the UNSC shipmaster who was sporting a smug grin on their face. "The Infinity. You will tell me where it is."

The human shipmaster didn't move from her confidant pose and Rtol understood that the human wasn't going to fulfill his request so easily. He threw the female painfully onto an elite minor next to him and growled at the shipmaster, stomping threateningly at the human as the crew raised their sidearms in his direction and the shipmaster bolted to reach a pulsing red button on the main control panel.

"Hold it right there there, big guy." The human warned. "move another muscle and in one minute we'll all be incinerated to a few thousand degrees kelvin and we are close enough to take your big fancy ship with us."

Rtol hissed, the echo erupting from underneath his helmet. He would only have to stall for a moment of time, the journey back to the phantom in the ship's hangar would take twelve minutes if the spec-ops commander were to keep a moderate pace.

"So why don't you tell me something instead? Where is Osiris and Blue Team? We know they're not on Genesis where they left their tracker."

"Your attempts are futile, human. Even if I do die today, even if my fleet is destroyed at your command.. more ships can be constructed and warriors will be trained. Willing to die for the matriarch's army."

"Not what I wanted to hear."

Gunshot rang out as one of the crew closer to the door executed a kig-yar who neglected to defend itself with their small arms and the remaining elites, unggoy and kig-yar raised their weapons in retaliation. Rtol hissed at them, forcing them to return to a neutral but cautious stance as he noticed the shipmaster's hand begin to hover dangerously close to the self-destruct.

"Let's try that again-"

"Supreme Commander."

Everyone focused on a qirvian elite donning a red major combat harness in the front of the massing group of aliens by the door.

"Shipmaster of the _Consequence of Revolution_ reports that a unit of the unaugmented humans had infiltrated with a captured phantom. Multiple blocks had been detached and the humans had been exterminated but they had brought an unknown device with them."

There was an extended silence as the distant sound of an explosion reached the ship and all looked out to the window to witness the destruction of the _Consequence of Revolution_. The explosion was from the inside, determined by debris flying outward and the real lack of any visible conflicting craft nearby. The humans must have detonated one of their warheads onboard the ship before they were taken care of by the _Revolution's_ shipmaster. The human shipmaster was surprised as well as they had seemed to have nothing to do with the event.

"Enough of this." Rtol growled, lunging at the human. Startled, the shipmaster slammed a closed fist onto the button. The Supreme Commander yelled in fury as both groups began firing at one another, the sound of weapons fighting to outscream each other. The alarms rang and the few lights lighting the room turned into a blood-red color.

 _Sixty seconds until Self-Destruct. Repeat, Sixty seconds. Evacuate immediately._

"Knights! Hear my command!" Rtol screamed over the chaos. The large promethean constructs teleported into the room and roared their war cry, revealing the orange glowing human-like skull that lay underneath their metallic masks. "Take them as prisoners! Bring us safely to my ship!"

Rtol knocked out the human shipmaster with a blow to the heretic's unarmored head with his rifle and threw the body over to one of the mechanical beings who then promptly took tight hold and teleported away. The process was quickly repeated with a small number of others before Rtol took the arm of the female under his ranks, she did not bother resisting and stayed quiet about her pain. A knight came up from behind them and tightly hugged its arms around them in a cold embrace before teleporting away. When the group arrived, Rtol let go of the human's arm. Letting the weak creature fall onto the ground and clutch her wound for a moment before forcing her up with an iron grip on her injured arm.

"Get your wound fixed before I decide to tear your arm off myself." He snarled, pushing the human in the direction of the hallway. She remained silent with her head held low as he turned around. They had been transported to the ship's onboard prison block with the knights and sangheili wardens forcefully unarming the captured humans. He stood over the quiet body of the human shipmaster and halted the sangheili in charge before they had gotten a chance to even over their hand over the human.

"I want this one separated far from the rest. Torture is permitted to extract information if necessary but I want the human to remain alive. If anything happens to them than whoever is responsible is to answer to me personally."

The sangheili nodded and dragged the limp body off and Rtol began his way back to the bridge. Clutching his chest in the spot where he had realized his armor had been breached by a human pistol round. He passed a pair of sangheili who stopped in shock and eyes widened, moving out of his way to the sides of the hallway as he continued his way to the bridge. Perhaps they were mislead of his potential death? the ship would have had plenty of time to have explode by now.

All eyes focused on him once he entered through the door, jaws of many sangheili gaped open in astonishment. No one bothered to talk but they all stood there as he took his seat in his command chair, gripping the metal arms with stress. He looked at the display and saw as the _Determination_ now remained only shards of debris slowly flying down to orbit.

"What is the status of other units sent to the ships?"

"Returned teams report that data had been cleared by remaining crew of their ships. However we still wait for three to return." The major responded.

"Destroy the ships. Leave none left."

"But what of the teams?"

"I do not care for their lives. Destroy the ships at once."

The major nodded and turned to his console. And quickly the order to launch had been received by the gunners and plasma torpedoes sped away, ripping the smaller UNSC frigates in half. Despite of the situation he couldn't help but feel humbled by the humans. They had willingly thrown away their lives to try and stop him specifically. Smiling under his helmet in partial satisfaction at the understanding that he had established himself was a prominent threat to the UNSC and their allies. He sat watching the screen for a moment before turning to the loyal major at his side.

"Return us to the matriarch's world, there we will search for the _Infinity_ once again. Leave the rest of the ships to finish what was started here."

* * *

A/N: so what are you guys thinking about the story so far? tell me on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being really good) I'm planning to focus on the Arbiter, Palmer, and Fireteams Osiris and Blue team and possibly the Infinity in the next chapter as I have been kinda leaving them in the background for the last two chapters I think.


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